Operating the flight was a Dash 8-311, with 23 passengers and crew.

When Flight 5634 was nearing Paris, a Korean Air Boeing 747 scraped an engine pod on landing, causing air traffic controllers to close the runway briefly.

While in clouds and heavy fog on short final, the airliner entered a high sink rate and crashed into the ground tail-first.

The aircraft involved was a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-311, MSN 210, registered as D-BEAT, that was built by de Havilland Canada in 1990.

It logged 5973 airframe hours and was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW123 engines.