The judge investigating the Spanair jet crash in August that killed 154 people is pursuing the technicians who checked the plane before it took off for manslaughter, a judicial official said Thursday.

Judge Juan Javier Perez has launched legal action against the head of Spanair's maintenance and two mechanics for "manslaughter and injuries caused by carelessness," the official said.

They have been summoned to attend a first hearing on November 3, the source said.

The judge wants to know whether the crash was related to work the mechanics might have done after the pilot reported an apparent fault.

A report released last week into the August 20 crash that killed 154 people in Madrid said the wing flaps were not properly extended on take-off and an alarm failed to alert the pilots to the problem.

Lacking the necessary lift provided by the flaps the twin-engined McDonnell Douglas MD-82, on a flight to the Canary Islands, crashed moments after leaving the ground at Madrid airport.

Only 18 of the 172 people aboard the aircraft survived Spain's deadliest air accident in 25 years.

The preliminary report was compiled by an investigatory commission set up by Spain's CIAIAC air accident investigation committee.

The judicial source said Perez had ordered a second commission to be formed, comprising two pilots, two engineers and two mechanics, all fully experienced.

On Wednesday he heard testimony from two policemen who went to the scene of the crash. In the coming days he will hear rescue workers and other people directly affected by the disaster.

"Throughout the whole period from when the engines were switched on in the parking position and until the end of the (black box) recording, the angle of the flaps was zero degrees," according to the CIAIAC report released on October 9.

The plane managed to climb 12 metres and then tilted slightly to the left and then hard to the right before hitting the ground tail-first, the report said.

"Throughout the take-off approach and until the end of the (black box) recording, there was no sound from the alarm system indicating an inappropriate setting for take-off," it added.

It said that contrary to early reports from witnesses, both "engines functioned normally throughout the period of the accident."

The inquiry is continuing and "exhaustive analyses" will be necessary to reached definitive conclusions on the accident, the CIAIAC said.

A first draft of the report leaked earlier had said the crash could have been avoided if the airline had followed the recommendations of the Boeing Corporation, which owns McDonnell Douglas, issued after an accident involving the same type of aircraft in Detroit, Michigan, in 1987. "The (Spanair) service manual in use at the time of the accident calls for this check (of the alarm system) before the first flight of the day and on stops between flights, unless at least one of the two pilots remains on duty," said the pre-report. Boeing's more stringent recommendation is that the check be carried out "before every flight, without exception." However, this section was erased from the version released last week, after Spanair said the leaked extracts contained "imprecisions." The airline's director of operations, Javier Muela, said Boeing made the recommendation one year before Spanair, a unit of Scandinavian carrier SAS, was set up in 1988 and it was not informed by the planemaker of the need to verify the alarm.

AFP