Jet Crashes Into Mountain in Spain; All 148 Aboard Die : 2 Americans, Bolivian Official Among Victims

An Iberia Boeing 727 preparing to land crashed into a mountain today and burst into flames, killing all 148 people aboard, including Bolivia’s labor minister and two Americans, authorities said.

“I felt sick. There were limbs of bodies and pieces of the engine scattered all over the mountainside,” said a farm worker who saw the plane hit northern Spain’s major television transmitting tower and crash onto the mountainside.

Flight 610 from Madrid to the northeastern city of Bilbao struck Oiz Mountain, about 18 miles from Bilbao’s Sondica Airport, civil aviation authorities said.

Air traffic controllers said the aircraft disappeared from their monitors about 15 minutes before it was due to land at Sondica.

Common Weather Pattern

Authorities said the weather was cloudy in Bilbao at the time of the crash, but airport officials said flights to and from Bilbao in similar weather conditions were common.

“We have 300 (rescue workers) up there and there is no way anyone can have survived,” a Civil Guard spokesman said.

Enrique Abadia, spokesman for Spain’s national airline, Iberia, said 148 people--141 passengers and seven crew members--were on the plane. He confirmed that rescue workers had so far found no survivors.

The airline had said earlier that as many as 20 people might have survived the crash in the northern Basque region of Spain in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.

Americans Identified

Lisa Hodges, a spokeswoman for Iberia in New York, said two Americans were known to be on board. They were John Steigerwald, 28, an employee of General Electric, whose parents are believed to be from Maryland, and Philip Moon, whose age and hometown were not immediately available.

Also among the passengers were Bolivian Labor Minister Gonzalo Guzman Eguez and Spain’s former foreign affairs minister, Gregorio Lopez Bravo, Civil Aviation authorities said.

In La Paz, Spanish Embassy officials notified the Bolivian government of President Hernan Siles Zuazo that Guzman, 54, was among the victims. The Bolivian ambassador in Madrid, Luis Adolfo Siles, said Guzman was on his way to Bilbao to negotiate an electric train construction project.

Guzman was a respected labor leader before becoming minister last month and was considered one of Siles Zuazo’s closest aides. Siles Zuazo issued a brief statement saying he “regretted” Guzman’s death.