The Association of Victims of Flight JK5022 has organized several events in Madrid to honor the memory of the victims. The commemorative day will begin at 12:30 PM with a private floral offering at the monument dedicated to the accident's passengers, located in Juan Carlos I Park, within the Barajas district.
Subsequently, at 12:45 PM, a visit and floral offering will take place in the gardens of Terminal 2 of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, specifically at the bronze plaques at the foot of the Olive tree. At 1:15 PM, another floral offering will be held at the monument situated inside the terminal itself.
The main ceremony will occur starting at 2:00 PM at the accident site, in the annex of runway 36-L of the airport. Family members and loved ones will pay tribute to the victims with music, poems, and a prayer led by the chaplain. At precisely 2:24 PM, the time of the crash, five minutes of silence will be observed, followed by a floral offering.
The JK5022 tragedy, which occurred on August 20, 2008, was the deadliest aviation accident in Spain since 1983 and the most severe in Western Europe since 1988. Out of the 172 people on board, 154 lost their lives, 135 of Spanish nationality and 19 from twelve other nationalities. Eighteen people survived, most with serious injuries.
The investigation determined that the primary cause of the accident was human error, as the pilots failed to deploy the flaps and slats on three separate occasions, compounded by a failure in the aircraft's alarm system (TOWS) that should have alerted them to this oversight.
