Spain crash probe: Wing flaps not deployed

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A passenger jet that crashed last month in Madrid did not have its wing flaps deployed during takeoff, and a cockpit warning system failed to alert pilots to the problem, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN on Tuesday.

The findings, from official investigators, are contained in a draft preliminary report about the crash that killed 154 people, the source said.

But the draft report did not say that these problems were the reason for the crash last August 20 of a Spanair fight, the source said.

Spanish media on Tuesday reported on the draft's findings.

A spokesman for the airline, Spanair, told CNN, "We won't comment on leaks (to the media) of an incomplete draft report."

The Spanair spokesman, Adolfo Lazaro, did confirm that a draft report has been distributed to the government, Spanair, and the plane's manufacturer, McDonnnell-Douglas, with the aim of receiving feedback, as part of the government-run investigation.

The source familiar with the investigation said the findings about the wing flaps and the cockpit warning system problem were culled from the MD-82's flight data recorder, but apparently not from the cockpit voice recorder.

The Spanair plane crashed while taking off, en route to Spain's Canary Islands.

The plane managed to rise only slightly from Madrid's airport before coming down quickly to the right of the runway, its tail section hitting the ground first, just off the asphalt, a top official of Spain's accident investigative commission told a news conference last month.

The out-of-control plane then skidded and bounced at least three times as it careered 1,200 meters (3,840 feet) across uneven terrain and exploded, coming to rest in a gully, said the official, Francisco Javier Soto, the technical secretary of the government's accident investigative commission.

Soto said, at the time, that a preliminary report should be issued about a month after the accident, but definitive conclusions could take much longer.

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