The Metroliner train engineer was texting when he went through the red stop signal and ran into the freight train at 42 MPH. Never even hit the brakes.

Both cases seemed to involve distraction with tragic results.

We must be careful not to attribute the crash to the failure of the warning system. It is still the responsibility of the crew to determine that the configuration is correct for the take off conditions. While we still don’t know the cause, we can say that many accidents like this have occurred due to interrupted sequences of events. This crew aborted one take off, returned for maintenance, then departed again. The real questions will be, did the flap/slat actuation system fail, did the cockpit indicator of flap and slat positions fail to read correctly, or did the crew fail to select the appropriate settings?

The videos published seem to indicate that the aircraft rotated and flew in ground effect – the effect that occurs withing approximately one half wing span of the ground which alters the airflow and reduces the angle of attack, allowing the aircraft to fly. Climbing out of ground effect is impossible with the incorrect settings, and the aircraft stalls and settles to the ground.

Now, where my knowledge ends is how long that runway would need to be at the temperature we saw in Madrid that day with the load onboard. Assuming what you say is true (I have absolutely no reason to doubt it), then it seems like the investigators should find it easy to determine the ultimate cause of the accident. Any idea why they’d hold back on that?