Spanair has expressed its condolences following Wednesday’s incident in Madrid.

Spanair, which is owned by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), has expressed its condolences following the crash of its flight JK5022, from Madrid to Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, on Wednesday 20 August.

The incident happened on the runway of Madrid Barajas Airport at 2:45pm, Spanish time. Of the 172 people onboard – 162 passengers, 4 passive crew and 6 flight crew – only 19 survived.

The cause of the incident is unknown and is currently being investigated. Marcus Hedblom, Spanair’s Director General, would not comment about possible causes: “We are not going to speculate about this matter. We have supplied the technical staff of the Civil Aviation Authorities all the documents and technical registers of the damaged aircraft and they will determine the causes.”

The crash is expected to further worsen troubles for the airline, which recently reported a feasibility plan, involving staff, capacity and fleet cuts, to cope with the economic crisis and rising fuel costs. It announced plans to ground 15 aircraft and cut approximately 900 employees.

Spanair’s operations are now functioning as usual.