A firefighter who helped rescue the only three children to survive Wednesday's Spanish airliner crash in which 153 people perished was on Thursday hailed as a hero.

Francisco Martinez told reporters that when he arrived at the crash scene the mother of one of the children, 41-year-old Amalia Filloy, told him to rescue her daughter Maria. Filloy did not survive.

"Her mother handed her to us... and the woman stayed behind. There were too few firefighters at the beginning," he told reporters after visiting the girl, who has a broken leg, at a Madrid hospital.

"The girl was totally disoriented, she did not complain or talk despite the great number of serious injuries which she had," he added in comments broadcast on news radio Cadena Ser.

Martinez also plucked two other boys, aged six and eight, from the wreckage of the Spanair plane which slammed into a wooded area near the airport during its second attempt at takeoff after mechanical problems.

The hero of the day

"This fireman has become, perhaps without intending to, the hero of the day," daily newspaper El Mundo wrote in its online edition.

Only 16 other passengers on the flight to Spain's Canary Islands survived, making it the country's worst aviation accident in 25 years.

Maria was travelling with her mother, father and older sister back to the Canaries after a holiday in their hometown on mainland Spain, the newspaper said.

Her father Jose Alonso is in hospital with a broken pelvis while her 14-year-old sister died in the accident.

Martinez said one of the rescued boys "kept asking me if it was true what was happening."

"He thought it was a film and he kept asking where was his father and when the film would end," he added.

The six-year-old boy is still unconscious due to severe head and facial injuries while the eight-year-old has a broken leg, Spanish media reported.

Most of those on board Spanair flight JK 5022 were Spanish nationals but citizens of at least 11 foreign countries are among the victims, according to the government.

Spanair officials declined to speculate on the cause of the air tragedy pending the result of an air accident investigation.

AFP