Almost all passengers and crew on board a packed plane bound for a popular European tourist destination are reported to have died after it burst into flames on takeoff in Spain.

All but about 25 of the 173 people on board flight JK5022 were killed after the aircraft swerved off of a runway and crashed at Madrid’s Barajas airport on Wednesday, according to emergency services sources.

The Spanish interior ministry has said at least 45 people died in the disaster.

The aircraft is reported to have been attempting an emergency landing shortly after becoming airborne.

Clouds of smoke were seen billowing from the runway after the plane, which had been taking off for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands off of West Africa, crashed at Terminal Four.

“It is a catastrophe,” an emergency rescue service official said, as crews removed bodies and injured people from the aircraft belonging to Spanish airline Spanair.

Joanne Levine, Al Jazeera’s correspondent at the airport, said: “Black smoke is rising from the plane and the airport has been shut down.

“Ambulances are heading towards the scene.”

Helicopters and fire engines pumped water onto the burning plane, which had crashed into a wooded area at the end of the runway.

The MD-80 plane, which can carry up to 166 passengers, is operated by Spanair, Spain’s second-biggest airline after Iberia, and is a subsidiary of Scandinavian carrier SAS.

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