They were an Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flying from Palma de Mallorca and a Spantax Convair 990 from Madrid.

It was built by McDonnell Douglas in 1967 and it had logged 10852 hours and 45 minutes of flight time and 9452 takeoff and landing cycles.

The Spantax aircraft was on the boundary between the sectors and had difficulty hearing Marina ATC, also receiving no reply to two requests to circle to avoid arriving at the Nantes VOR before 13:00 GMT.

Forty-seven of the dead were British citizens, including Michael Jeffery, the former manager of The Animals and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Its report identified difficulties in communication between the flight crew of the Convair CV-990 and air traffic control as well as procedural errors from both parties.

The event is briefly mentioned in the MSNBC/The Weather Channel documentary series Why Planes Crash, during the first season episode "Collision Course".

The episode features an interview with survivor Betty Barrett who shows images of the CV-990's damaged wing after landing.