A Spanair MD-82 jetliner broke up and caught fire after skidding off the runway at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, killing 153 people in Spain's worst aviation accident in 25 years and one of the deadliest European air carrier crashes in a decade.

Of the 172 passengers and crew onboard, only 19 survived and taken to hospitals in Madrid.

While preparing for takeoff,, the flight deck crew reported a broken air temperature gauge. It was fixed, delaying the departure, said a Spanair spokeswoman. It was on the second takeoff attempt that the plane crashed.

Spanair Flight JK5022/LH2554 involved a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 twinjet (EC-HFP). It is reported that the No. 1 Pratt & Whitney powerplant may have been on fire during the takeoff roll.

The jetliner, operated by a subsidiary of SAS, was bound for Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, Canary Islands, a popular tourist destination off the coast of West Africa.

The jetliner broke apart and came to rest in a ditch beyond Runway 36L’s overrun area. Spanair said its Flight 5022 was a code-share flight with Lufthansa LH 2554.

The investigation will be headed by the Spanish Comision de Investigacion de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviacion Civil, or CIAIAC. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to Madrid to assist in the investigation of the fatal accident. The U.S. team also includes technical specialists from the FAA, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney.

The last fatal airline crash in Spain was in February 1985, when a Boeing 727 crashed on approach to Bilbao Airport. All 148 people on board were killed. Barajas International last suffered fatal accidents in 1983, including a Boeing 747-200 that hit a tree on approach, killing 181 of the 192 on board.

Spain's worst air disaster killed 583 in the Canary Islands where two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife’s airport in March 1977. A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines jumbo jet taking off in fog hit a Pan American World Airways widebody taxiing for departure in the deadliest runway incursion accident.