Death toll climbs in Spanair plane crash

MADRID, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The death toll in the Spanair plane that crashed Wednesday in the Spanish capital has reached 153, officials said.

Twenty-seven people were also injured, though recovered from the wreckage,

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday they were sending investigators to Madrid assist in a probe of the crash of the MD 82 plane, El Mundo newspaper reported online.

The flight taking off from Madrid and bound for Las Palmas in the nearby Canary Islands crashed shortly after takeoff, witnesses and emergency officials said.

El Mundo reported that the plane's left jet engine caught on fire on takeoff.