It appears the world had its second deadly accident for the year today which happened in Madrid Spain. Despite this, we had a banner safety year in the U.S. with no accidents. The accident today in Spain involved a MD-80 series aircraft which is the same type I fly. The preliminary information is still fresh & we don't know all the facts. What we know is that the aircraft had initially left the gate & had an engine light go off. The crew returned to the gate to troubleshoot with maintenance. Apparently the problem was solved so they attempted to depart & while on the takeoff the engine caught fire & they crashed. Here's the problem, this aircraft like most are fully capable of flying under one engine even if one's on fire. We practice this procedure in the flight simulator every 6 months. In fact, as I write this blog I just finished my simulator check yesterday. The check pilot gave me an engine fire on my check. The airplane could fly on one engine if the procedures are followed correctly. Thats why we practice this every six months. I'm not going to play Monday morning quarterback. We still don't have all the facts. But, it would not surprise me if an attempt to abort the takeoff was made too late. One thing airline crew calculate for each takeoff is something called V1 speed. That is the speed in which once reached you have to make a split decision to takeoff or abort. Most airline operation procedure require that once V1 is reached you are flying regardless of the emergency situation. This is constantly drilled in us. Each pilot must brief what items they will abort for from 100kts to V1. Usually it would be for a engine fire, failure or wind shear. From 100 kts to V1 you don't want to abort for too many items unless its deadly serious like a fire. The logic is that a high speed abort is even more dangerous because you may never have enough time & runway to come to a complete stop. In most cases you will overrun the runway & crash. If you have a fire after V1 speed is reached, its safer to continue & takeoff. You have time to both put out the fire & safely fly the airplane. The key is making the right choice at V1 speed which should be briefed by the crew at the gate.