Britannia Airways Flight 226A was an international passenger flight from Cardiff, Wales to Girona, Spain, operated by charter airline Britannia Airways. On 14 September 1999, the Boeing 757 aircraft suffered a crash landing and broke apart during a thunderstorm in Girona-Costa Brava Airport. Of the 236 passengers and nine crew on board, two were seriously injured and 41 sustained minor injuries. One of the passengers who had apparently sustained only minor injuries died five days later of unsuspected internal injuries. The aircraft involved in the crash, Boeing 757-204 registration G-BYAG, was damaged beyond economical repair and scrapped.
The body that was responsible for the investigation of the crash, the Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission (CIAIAC), concluded that the crash had been caused by destabilized approach, loss of external reference and loss of automatic height callouts while landing in Girona. The aircraft entered a high rate of descent with a nose down attitude, creating an impact that was violent enough to dislodge the nose landing gear to the back and caused it to crash onto the aircraft's main electrical unit, resulting in an electrical failure that disabled all deceleration systems and in a sudden production of unwanted forward thrust. The aircraft was unable to stop and eventually veered off the runway.
Background
Aircraft The aircraft involved was a Boeing 757-204 registered as G-BYAG. It was manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 1992 with a manufacturer serial number of 26965 and was delivered to Britannia Airways in 1993. Two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines were installed on the aircraft. It was configured with 235 passenger seats, most being triple seat units. The aircraft had accumulated a total airframe hours of 26,429 hours in 9,816 cycles.
The nose landing gear support structure was attached to the wheel well. At the aft of the wheel well was a structure that was referred as the "doghouse". The structure was a robust, rectangular shape which made up the aircraft's wheel well. Located directly behind the doghouse was the main equipment centre (MEC), which housed the aircraft's electrical power control and electronic units. The unit powered many essential units of the aircraft, including the autobrake, antiskid, spoilers, and the flight recorders.
The thrust of the engines, including the amount of thrust and the type of thrust, was controlled by the pilots through cables that ran under the fuselage. The cables were controlled with tensioned pulley system. Depending on the type of rotation, the pulley system would provide either forward thrust or reverse thrust to the engines. The two cables, consisted of cable A and cable B, would eventually go through the designated powerplant control units, one on each side of the aircraft. If the A cable was pulled by the pulley then the forward thrust would increase. Pulling the B cable would increase the reverse thrust.
Passengers and crew A total of 236 passengers were on board the aircraft, all of whom were part of a tour that had been organized by Thomson Travel. Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that there were 3 children on board and all 236 passengers were of British origin. There were also 9 crew members on board, consisted of 2 flight crew and 7 cabin crew. The pilot was identified as 57-year-old Captain Brendan Nolan. Described by fellow pilots as one of the most experienced pilots in Britannia Airways, he had accumulated a total of 16,700 flying hours, of which 3,562 hours were on the type. The name of the 33-year-old co-pilot was undisclosed, but he was far less experienced, having just 1,494 flying hours, most of which were on the Boeing 757.
Flight Flight 226A was a passenger flight from the Welsh capital of Cardiff to Girona, serving the popular tourist region of the Costa Brava. Operated by United Kingdom's largest charter airline Britannia Airways, the flight had been chartered by UK's travel company Thomson Travel. Passengers aboard the aircraft were part of a tour that had been organized by Thomson.
The flight was scheduled to take off on 14 September 1999 for Girona-Costa Brava Airport, with Barcelona, Reus and Toulouse in France as alternate airports. The flight took off from Cardiff Airport at 20:40 BST with 236 passengers and 9 crew members on board. Before taking off from Cardiff, the crew had been briefed on the weather forecast in Girona. The briefing concluded that thunderstorms would be present at the destination airport and all three alternate airports. The crew had taken an additional 15 minutes of fuel reserve for possible delays.
Approaching Girona, the crew asked for the updated weather information. Girona ATC indicated that the thunderstorm near the airport would prevail during the approach and landing phase. The storm was located at the southwest of the airport. The controller later advised the crew to make an ILS approach to Runway 20, but the crew elected to choose Runway 02, the same runway from the opposite direction, after considering the wet runway condition, downslope and tailwind. Captain Nolan knew that the approach to Runway 02 would be difficult so he took over control from his co-pilot.
As the approach commenced, the first officer asked the crew to prepare and announced to passengers that there would be turbulence. The weather was poor and the aircraft was shaking. During the approach, one of the cabin crew informed the pilots that the right side of the aircraft had been struck by lightning. Despite this, the aircraft continued the approach to Girona. Several preceding flights had diverted to Barcelona due to the stormy conditions.
First approach At 23:18 local time, the aircraft was 16 nautical miles from Girona's VOR. The speedbrake was deployed and the aircraft reached the VOR at 23:22 local time while descending through 7,200 ft. After passing the VOR, the crew decided to follow the next step of the approach procedure. While turning back towards the VOR, the turbulence didn't dissipate. The aircraft kept shaking, hard enough to knock the approach chart out of its holder. The chart, which had been clipped by the holder onto Captain Nolan's yoke, had fallen to the cockpit floor. Captain Nolan eventually had to ask his first officer to read the approach chart to him.
Around 23:29 local time, the aircraft had levelled at 3,400 ft and the flaps had been set to 5 degree. The controller gave the crew on the updated weather report and the crew realized that the weather condition had deteriorated. Visibility had gone down from 5 km to 4 km and the thunderstorm had moved right above the airport. Captain Nolan then checked the remaining fuel on board and advised his co-pilot to divert to one of the alternate airports in case of a missed approach.
The crew eventually fully configured the aircraft for landing and completed the landing checklist. However, the controller reported that the wind direction had changed. The wind now favoured the opposite runway and was blowing at 12 knots. She advised the crew to make an ILS approach to runway 20. Captain Nolan had acquired visual contact with the runway, but later decided to conduct a missed approach instead due to the aircraft being misaligned with the runway. They notified the ATC and headed to the north of the airport for an approach to Runway 20. Upon request by the crew, the controller gave the weather information in Barcelona, where the weather condition had improved. They decided to continue their attempt to land at Girona.
Second approach Following request from the crew for an approach to Runway 20, the controller cleared them and advised the crew regarding another wind change, this time the wind had increased to 15 knots. The crew agreed that they would divert the flight to Barcelona if they failed to land at their second attempt. The Flight Management Computer (FMC) warned the crew that the remaining fuel had depleted to an insufficient level and the first officer advised Captain Nolan on the situation. The aircraft began to capture the glidepath. Just before they managed to do so, Captain Nolan checked on the fuel again and realized that the fuel had decreased to 2,800 kg, approximately 200 kg short of the minimum fuel for a diversion to the alternate airport.
After capturing the glideslope, the crew gave confirmation between each other regarding their role during the landing. The First Officer would monitor the aircraft instruments while Captain Nolan would look out for external reference for Runway 20. The aircraft was configured again for landing and the crew received landing clearance from the controller. At 23:46 local time, the aircraft descended below cloud and became visual with the runway at around above ground level. The landing light was turned on and the ATC reported that the aircraft was in sight.
At above ground level, the crew disconnected the autopilot and the autothrottle. The First Officer noticed that the aircraft was above the ILS glidepath and warned Captain Nolan that they had deviated from the correct path. Captain Nolan momentarily pushed the nose down before he finally brought the yoke back up to the neutral position.
Crash landing The crew was monitoring their instruments when the airfield lighting suddenly failed due to a power cut.Subsequent tests estimated the lighting outage at approx. 11 seconds in duration. When Captain Nolan glanced back to his window, he was stunned to find that the airport runway had disappeared from his vision. With few seconds left for a landing, at an altitude between 80 and 54 feet above ground level, the GPWS blared "SINK RATE", warning the crew on the excessive rate of descent. Shortly after the warning, the radio altimeter sounded "ten", indicating that there were only 10 ft left between the aircraft and the ground. Both thrust levers were immediately put to the idle position.
The aircraft touched down hard, first with its nose gear and then with the rest of the landing gears, at a speed of 141 knots. Forces up to 3G rocked the entire aircraft. It then bounced back to the air with a slight roll to the right and went down again in a full nose down input. It struck the runway with its nose landing gear again. The second impact was a lot more powerful than the last. As a result, the nose landing gear collapsed and the aircraft skidded through the runway.
Immediately after the second hard landing, all of the aircraft lighting went off. The emergency cabin light was activated. In the cockpit, the first officer shouted that the autobrake system was not working. Captain Nolan tried to stop the aircraft by applying brakes manually, but the aircraft kept rolling down the runway. Meanwhile, the controller, who earlier had lost sight of the aircraft during the electrical failure at the airport, realized that Flight 226A had rolled down the runway with flashes and sparks coming out from the left side of the aircraft.
The Boeing 757 then veered to the right and left the runway at high speed, approximately from the second touchdown point. It then ran across flat grassland beside the runway, before going diagonally over a substantial earth mound adjacent to the airport boundary, becoming semi-airborne as a result. Beyond the mound it hit a number of medium-sized trees and the right engine struck the boundary fence. The aircraft then passed through the fence, re-landed in a field and both main landing gears collapsed. It finally stopped after a slide across the field, from the second touchdown. During the crash, Captain Nolan was thrown from his seat, causing him to strike his head against the left windscreen, knocking him unconscious.
Post-crash