‘I thought we were going to die and that no-one was going to find us’
TWENTY years ago 236 passengers boarded a plane at Cardiff Airport ready for a two-hour flight to Girona.
And at 8.40pm, on September 14 1999, the Britannia Airways BY226A flight left Cardiff.
But the plane never landed at the Spanish airport as planned.
The Boeing 757 crashed at Girona airport in a heavy storm – it hit the runway, veered right and bounced off an embankment before breaking into three pieces and coming to rest in a field.
Miraculously no one was killed in the crash, but one man died in a Spanish hospital a day later from a suspected heart attack.
Passengers said that they then had to wait outside for up to two hours in pitch darkness and atrocious conditions after the crash.
Although passengers and crew sustained modest physical injuries, many of the passengers on the flight suffered severe psychological injuries, including anxiety, nightmares, depression, flight phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Twenty years on and those who were on the flight have shared their harrowing memories from that day. Passengers on the flight describe the moment when they thought they were going to die and the huge impact the crash has had on their lives.
Catherine Allaway, who lives in Ynysddu, was looking forward to a one-week holiday with her daughter Kirsty-Leigh. The crash has had
a profound impact on the 50-yearold.
She said: “We had done the flight to Girona before, this was the second time going there. We took off and the flight was normal until about 10pm when we started to have thunder and lightning.
“Coming down to land I looked at my watch and Kirsty said ‘mam we should be landing now, you said we were landing at 10.30pm, what’s wrong mam, why aren’t we landing?’ ‘We won’t be long now I said.’
“As we came down we went straight back up in the air. I thought there’s something not quite right here, I had a gut feeling that something was wrong.
“When we came down the second time everything was black outside, all I could see was lightning around the airport. The plane was bouncing and bouncing until eventually we just crashed.
“The oxygen masks just fell out of the ceiling and I just felt like there was a bomb on the plane, that was my first reaction.
“I knew when we came down that second time that we weren’t going to survive. I just had thoughts of opening up my dad’s grave for me and Kirsty.
“People were screaming and panicking, there was a silence as well. I mentally blacked out then.
“The one thing that worries me is that I will never get that part of my life back where I can’t remember and even 20 years on Kirsty has told me so many times about a man releasing her from her seat but I still can’t remember.
“Why can’t I remember it? No matter how much I try I can’t remember. When we checked in, at first they had Kirsty sat in row 1 and me in row 29. I remember saying to the staff that you either put us both together or I am not getting on that plane. She was only nine at the time.
“In the end they put us together in 29 A and B. What if I didn’t kick up a fuss, she would be at the front of the plane and I wouldn’t be able to find her, that scares me the most.
‘I was in pain and I had bruises. I thought my time was up’
KIRSTY-LEIGH ALLAWAY
“When we got out of the plane we didn’t know what we were jumping into, if it was water then I would have just died because jumping into water just terrifies me, it was so scary.
“At the time I thought we were going to die and I thought that no-one was going to find us. I had a swollen left ankle from where my foot got stuck and Kirsty was vomiting from shock, she couldn’t stop. We had no clothes, we were just wearing what we were standing in.
“I came home and for months after I couldn’t leave the house, I couldn’t take my daughter to school I just cried and cried. My friends would knock on the door and take her to school which was just opposite my house. It’s been a really difficult time. We didn’t go on holiday until about three years after the crash. As Kirsty has got cerebral palsy her physiotherapist asked me if she could go on an all expenses paid trip to Florida. As a single mum it was the only chance that she will get to go.
“I then went to a travel agent’s and booked a holiday to Torremolinos, I knew Kirsty wouldn’t go to Florida if I didn’t book this.
“As we checked in our seats were 29 A and B – I told the woman that I was not sitting in those seats, I broke down in tears. Panic attacks then started to come on in departures at Bristol Airport when I could see a row of Britannia planes.
“I was hysterical on landing, I was panicking, I thought the plane was going to crash again and this is what it’s been like for all these years. I’ve been to the doctors, I’ve tried drinking but that doesn’t help it just gives me a headache.
“I have taken anti-depressants for many years because of the plane crash, I don’t feel ready to come off them yet but I want to because I think I have been on them for too long.
“It’s been a long 20 years, I’ve suffered with post-traumatic stress disorder. I get flashbacks when planes fly over our house, I will be shaking in bed at the sound of a plane, I have tried watching a plane land but I end up bursting into tears.
“I have had to overcome so many hurdles to go on holiday. I try to fly on a 6am flight if I can, I am reluctant to fly to Spain again in the night in case it happens again, I just can’t do it.
“When it’s the anniversary it all comes back to us, the smell of fuel also reminds me of the crash.”
Her daughter Kirsty-Leigh was nine at the time of the crash. Her legs were trapped and at one point she thought that she wouldn’t be able to get out. The now 29-year-old believed that the plane was going to explode.
“You just heard a bang and the plane was bouncing all over the place and then it smashed to the floor,” she said.
“It was dark and foggy but spotlights were on. There was a rusty, dirty smell on the plane. People were shouting ‘grab your bags and get off the plane’, I remember my mam saying ‘never mind about your bags I’ve got a disabled daughter here’.
“I’ve got cerebral palsy on my left side. I was stuck, mam blacked out and mam struggled to release herself but when she did I said ‘mam it’s fine, just go’ but she wouldn’t leave me.
“I was numb, I tried to move but I just couldn’t get myself out, mam was trying to yank me out but she couldn’t move me. I was in pain and I had bruises. I thought my time was up when I was trapped. The man’s seat in front of me went forward and back and it went back into me, his head rest landed on me, he managed to pick himself up and go but we were still stuck.
“Out of nowhere this massive man then grabbed the seat and picked me up and shouted ‘run, run, run’.
“My next step is to get on the plane with my son. The last time I was on a plane I broke down and I can’t let my son see me like that.
“My partner wanted to surprise me by taking me on holiday. He found a deal to go to Costa Brava but I said there was no chance that we will go there.”
The official report into the disaster, which took five years to publish, identified a catalogue of events that caused the Boeing 757 to break into three pieces on landing at the storm-lashed airport.
The document revealed the weather, power failures, inadequate training, delays and design error all contributed to the crash of the Britannia Airways plane.
The report said Spanish air traffic services did not give the pilots detailed information about the development and intensity of the storm, and as the plane came in to land the runway lights went out, as a result of a power failure caused by the storm.
Disorientated by the lack of lights, the pilot did not decide to go around for a second attempt at landing – he had not had appropriate training to do so – but continued into the darkness.
The 57-year-old British pilot touched the runway nose and wheel down and bounced, causing the nose’s landing gear and support structure to break and damaging all of the aircraft systems, which resulted in the loss of virtually all electrical power and interference with controls. The plane travelled for almost 2km, coming to rest in a nearby field in three pieces.
The report also said “misunderstandings” meant passengers were stranded after the crash as the search and rescue teams struggled to find locate the plane.
It does not apportion blame but it did make a series of recommendations to Britannia, Girona Airport and Boeing, including introducing mandatory “go around” training for pilots after they have passed the decision-to-land height.