The Gerona Crash

- Five Years to a Report

 
   
 

Gerona air crash victims fear Spanish whitewash
 

Aug 24 2004
Date: 14 SEP 1999
Time: 21:47 UTC
Type: Boeing 757-204
Operator: Britannia Airways
Registration: G-BYAG
Msn / C/n: 26965/517
Year built: 1992
Engines: 2 Rolls Royce RB211-535E4
Crew: 0 fatalities / 9 on board
Passengers: 0 fatalities / 236 on board
Total: 0 fatalities / 245 on board
Airplane damage: Written off
Location: Gerona-Costa Brava Airport (GRO) (Spain)
Phase: Landing
Nature: Int'l Non Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: Cardiff-Wales Airport (CWL)
Destination airport: Gerona-Costa Brava Airport (GRO)
Flightnumber: 226A
Narrative:
Flight BY226A took off from Cardiff at 20:40 for a non-scheduled passenger flight to Gerona. The aircraft arrived near Gerona around 21:20 hours. With a thunderstorm in the area, flight conditions were turbulent. The crew elected to fly a VOR/DME procedure to runway 02. Upon becoming visual the aircraft was not adequately aligned with the runway and a change in wind direction now favored the reciprocal runway so a missed approach was carried out. The aircraft was positioned for an ILS approach to runway 20. Twenty seconds prior to touchdown the surface wind reported by ATC was 150 /6 kt. The captain saw the runway lights at about 500 feet agl and made the decision to land at the decision height of 251 feet (altitude 720 feet). At some point after this he lost outside visual references. Two automatic audio cautions of excessive sink rate were given by the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) just before touchdown. Information The aircraft contacted the runway very hard in a 2 nose down attitude with an airspeed of 141 kt, bounced and touched down again approximately 140 meters further on. After a run of approximately 343 meters across flat grassland beside the runway, the aircraft ran diagonally over a substantial earth mound adjacent to the airport boundary, becoming semi-airborne as a result. At the far side of the mound a number of medium sized trees were struck and severed, predominantly by the right wing, and the right engine nacelle struck the boundary fence. The aircraft, yawed considerably to the right of its direction of travel, then passed through the fence, re-landed in a field and both main landing gears collapsed. It came to rest after a 244 meter slide across the field, with the fuselage almost structurally severed at two points, the NLG and both engines detached and the underside of the left wing torque box split open near the wing root. One passenger died of a suspected heart attack at his holiday hotel on the Costa Brava, five days after the incident. He had received treatment for head injuries before deciding to carry on with his holiday. A family member disagreed with the Spanish hospital's decision not to keep him under observation.

© Jordi Grifé; more photos at Girona Aviation Spotters site
 
 
AAIB Bulletin No: S1/2000
NTSB Public Hearing
 

[disclaimer

VICTIMS of the Gerona air crash have spoken of their fears of a whitewash as the official report into the terrifying accident is released today - almost five years after the near disaster.

It is feared Spanish air accident investigators could produce a "bland" report which does not answer key questions about what caused flight BY226A to break into three on landing at the Spanish airport in a heavy storm.

The 235 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 757 have waited five years to discover what went wrong on what should have been a routine holiday flight.

Crucially, they want to know why a warning light in the cockpit was not acted upon minutes before the crash and why they had to wait up to an hour for help in pitch darkness and atrocious conditions after their Britannia Airways plane crashed.

No one was killed in the crash, but one man died in a Spanish hospital a day later. Though passengers and crew sustained modest physical injuries, most have suffered long-term psychological damage.

Catherine Allaway, 35, and her 13-year-old daughter Kirsty-Leigh, were among the passengers aboard the flight from Cardiff International Airport to Gerona on September 14, 1999.

The learning support assistant from Ynysddu said, "I just want to know what happened and why. We know we crashed but we want to know why.

"When Concorde crashed they had results within two weeks because, with no disrespect, all the people died. Because we survived, we've been put on hold for the past five years.

"I hope this will finally give us some definite answers. If they report 10 or 15 maybes it won't be anything that we don't already know."

And Mark Harvey, partner at Hugh James solicitors which has led the group litigation action arising from the Gerona crash, said, "It worries me to what extent the Spanish authorities will produce a whitewash.

"It is our view that there was pilot error but there must also be criticism of the Spanish authorities as the runway lights were extinguished before landing and the passengers - the victims of a plane crash - were left at the side of the runway for 40 minutes after the crash. And no one knew they were there.

"The whole point of the report is to find out what happened and identify safety recommendations to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"If they produce a bland report, exonerating everyone, who is to say the same thing couldn't happen again tomorrow?"

One of the major unanswered questions is why the pilot of flight BY226A appeared not to react to a warning light moments before the plane crashed.

An interim joint report by the Spanish authorities and the UK Air Accident Investigation Board recorded there was a cockpit warning that the aircraft was coming in at too steep a rate of descent.

The aircraft reportedly struck the runway nose-wheel first. The wheel structure then broke through the fuselage, damaging the hydraulics and causing the Boeing 757 to veer off the runway into a field.

"We want to know why he didn't take sufficient steps to deal with this and another warning before impact," Mr Harvey said.

"It doesn't take an expert to say that if the pilot is told in the cockpit that something is wrong they should do something to stop it happening."

It is hoped the report will also quash the numerous rumours about the cause of the crash which have been circulating in the absence of official findings.

These include suggestions that the pilot was advised to land elsewhere but the plane was not carrying enough fuel.

And it could play a key role in the cabin crew's fight for compensation as they must first prove Britannia Airways was at fault.

The passengers were awarded compensation for their psychological injuries after a judge last year ruled tour operator Thomson Holidays was liable.

What the Spanish investigation report says will be revealed to them today at a private meeting in Cardiff, organised by the UK Air Accident Investigation Board.

But the actual report is not expected to be officially released until later this month.

A spokeswoman for Britannia Airways said although the company looked forward to the publication of the report, she said it would be "inappropriate" to comment any further.

Mental scars still weigh heavily

IF Catherine Allaway could turn the clock back, she and daughter Kirsty-Leigh would never have stepped foot on flight BY226A.

The pair, from Ynysddu, were making a return trip to Spain for a summer holiday but opted to travel in September, instead of August, as they had done a year previously.

Catherine, 35, a says it was, at first, a normal flight. But she began to worry that something was wrong when a first landing attempt was abruptly aborted amid a violent storm.

It was only the second time Kirsty-Leigh, who was then eight, had flown.

"When we hit the runway, there was no stopping - there was no reverse thrust," said Catherine, who was sitting in the same area of the plane as the second crack appeared.

"I put my hands around my daughter's head but it was thrust against the chair again and again. It was horrendous.

"I never thought we were going to survive. It was like driving a car into a brick wall."

Both Catherine's and Kirsty-Leigh's legs were trapped when the Boeing 757 finally came to rest in a field after the crash,

 but both were able to get out of the wreckage.

"I mentally blacked out at this point," said Catherine, who still has to take anti-depressants almost five years after the crash. "My daughter says another passenger helped us.

"I saw a psychologist after the crash and they said that the loss of memory could be because it was a point at which I thought I was going to die and the adrenalin kicked in.

"They told me that part of my memory may never come back.

"I was such a happy person before it happened that if someone suggested I would suffer from depression I would have said never.

"But after it happened it got to the stage where I didn't want to go out, even to take my daughter to school. It was really difficult as I couldn't face talking to anyone.

"My daughter is coping OK, although it's still in the back of her head and she tends to bottle things up."

The crash has had a profound impact on Catherine's life. Although she has flown since - it took her three years to summon the courage - she will not fly at night and must always know the weather conditions ahead of stepping onto the plane.

She also relies on a cocktail of prescribed drugs to help her remain calm, although on landing she has frequently become upset, and even hysterical.

"I don't want to be like this," she said. "It's not fair on me and it's not fair on my daughter.

"If we had only gone in the summer and not in September, it wouldn't have happened. But you can't turn the clock back."
     from this link
 
     see also this link for outcome & link to Final Report

 Previous 1 2

 

to Latest Additions