Something appeared to be wrong with the aircraft. Packed with holidaymakers bound for the Canary Islands, Spanair flight JK5022 taxied out to the runway at Barajas airport in Madridand then turned back to the terminal after the pilot reported a fault in the instrument that measures outside temperatures.

When the technicians gave the green light an hour later, the 15-year-old aircraft returned to the runway, accelerated to more than 150mph and began to lift a few feet into the air.Then something happened — early reports suggested that one of the engines suddenly lost power or burst into flames — and the MD82 aircraft crashed into the ground near the end of the runway.

As it burnt fiercely for two hours, the wreckage set fire to the surrounding parched scrubland. The Spanish Government said that 153 people died in the accident and 19 had been injured. Most of the survivors suffered terrible burns. Two babies and 20 children were reported to be among the passengers.

“It’s horrible. Everything is burnt,” a rescue worker said. “It is the closest thing to Hell that I have ever seen. The bodies were boiling. They burnt our hands when we touched them.”

Such was the force of the crash and subsequent explosion that only the two engines of the aircraft remained.

“The scene is devastating,” Pablo Albella, a rescue worker, said. “The fuselage is destroyed. The plane burned. I have seen a kilometre of charred land and few whole pieces of the fuselage. It is all destruction.”

The victims suffering from second and third-degree burns were treated at a field hospital set up close to the scene before being taken to hospitals across the capital.

Distraught relatives and friends flocked to the airport at Palma de Gran Canaria, the flight’s destination. Spanair chartered a flight to take many of them to Madrid, where they hoped desperately to find their family members among the few survivors.

Miguel Ángel Sánchez, the lead firefighter, said that all the survivors were found in a nearby ravine. With his voice breaking, he told Spanish radio that no survivors were pulled from the wreckage. “It’s been very hard,” he said in tears. “Emergencies of this kind leave an enormous mark on you.”

Some told of narrow escapes. One passenger, called Goretti, told Spanish radio that she had almost bought a ticket on the ill-fated flight, but spotted a cheaper one at the last second. “I feel like I’ve been born again,” she said. “I had clicked on that flight on the internet, and for €10 I didn’t take it.”

She said that she saw the fireball as her father drove her to the terminal for her own flight.

Another passenger, Rafael, said that he was turned away at check-in because the flight was overbooked. “It was only half an hour later, when my brother called, that I learnt what had happened,” he said.

Early speculation on the cause of the crash centred on the port engine, which was reported to have failed or exploded at a critical moment, when it was too late to abort take-off.

There were reports that pilots had complained of strong winds on the runway. Experts suggested that a powerful gust could have forced the pilot to put too much pressure on the engine during take-off, making it burst into flames.

Spanair said that it was too early to say what had caused the worst accident in its 20-year history. Investigators from the US were flying to Spain. Boeing, which bought the maker of the crashed aircraft in 1997, said that it stood ready to help.

Last night it was claimed that a sister plane of the aircraft that crashed had to make an emergency landing six days ago after suffering suspected engine problems. That aircraft diverted to an airport in Gran Canaria after losing power mid-air.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Spain, during which the country’s flag at the Olympic Games in Beijing will fly at half-mast.

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