153 burnt to death in holiday jet crash in Madrid

[Tony]

An airliner packed with families bound for holidays on the Canary Islands crashed during take-off yesterday and turned into a massive fireball, killing 153 people on board and badly injuring 19.

More...153 burnt to death in holiday jet crash in Madrid (External link to The Times)

[Paul Carcone]

...and here was me just getting over my fear of flying. The mad thing is that I'm not terribly bothered about the take off and landing...it's the long, dull bit in the middle that freaks me out. I'm utterly convinced that turbulence is going to rip the plane apart.

However, I recently took a long flight in the company of an aeronautical engineer who informed me that airliner wings could actually bend so much that they would touch before they fell off.

This, allied to the realisation that turbulence is actually just a reminder that there is air keeping you up, went a long way to curing my fear...

I'll see what happens when I fly back to the UK in October!