On 14 September 1999, the Boeing 757-204 aircraft suffered a crash landing and broke apart during a thunderstorm in Girona-Costa Brava Airport.

[1] 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.

Located directly behind the doghouse was the main equipment centre (MEC), which housed the aircraft's electrical power control and electronic units.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that there were 3 children on board and all 236 passengers were of British origin.

Girona ATC indicated that the thunderstorm near the airport would prevail during the approach and landing phase[Note 1].

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 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 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.

[3] When Captain Nolan glanced back to his window, he was stunned to find that the airport runway had disappeared from his vision.

Shortly after the warning, the radio altimeter sounded "ten", indicating that there were only 10 ft left between the aircraft and the ground.

[1]: 4 The Boeing 757 then veered to the right and left the runway at high speed, approximately 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) from the second touchdown point.

It then ran 343 metres (1,125 ft) 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.

During the crash, Captain Nolan was thrown from his seat, causing him to strike his head against the left windscreen, knocking him unconscious.

Captain Nolan regained his consciousness shortly after the crash and the first officer immediately ordered an evacuation.

[1] The tower controller, aware shortly after touchdown that something was amiss, tried to contact the crew of Flight 226A, but to no avail.

One passenger later walked across the airfield to the terminal to seek help and told the staff the whereabouts of the crash site.

[4] Airport authorities were criticised after the accident, particularly for the fact it took rescue crews more than an hour to reach and evacuate the scene.

[10] The presence of stormy condition during the crash raised question on whether the storm had significantly affected the aircraft's performance, causing it to suffer a hard landing.

At least five people in Catalonia had been killed by the storms, prompting the civil agency to issue a weather emergency throughout the region.

This deviation was noticed by the crew and they attempted to correct the glidepath by pushing the yoke to lower the nose, momentarily increasing the aircraft's rate of descent.

The crew initially didn't realize that the airport's electricity had failed as their attention was directed to their instruments.

By the time they shifted their attention back to the window, they were shocked to discover that the airport had disappeared from their view.

With no visual cues on the airport's runway, the standard operating procedure stated that the crew should have immediately executed a missed approach.

However, the landing gear had also been lodged into the forward fuselage, damaging the flight electrical component and causing loss of battery supplies.

[1]: 80–83 The engine thrust increase had probably been caused by damage on the powerplant control unit of the aircraft's pulley system.

In its final report, the CIAIAC's finding was: It is considered that the most probable cause of the accident was the destabilisation of the approach below decision height with loss of external visual references and automatic height callouts immediately before landing, resulting in touchdown with excessive descent rate in a nose down attitude.

The resulting displacement of the nose landing gear support structure caused disruption to aircraft systems that led to uncommanded forward thrust increase and other effects that severely aggravated the consequences of the initial event.

[11]The following contributing factors were also determined: The CIAIAC issued 10 recommendations to multiple parties, including the FAA, EASA and Boeing.