The fuselage broke in two places.

Almost all runways are equipped with lighting equipment. It provides a safe landing at night, at dusk and in conditions of limited visibility.

On September 14, 1999, almost at midnight, a Britannia Airways flight from British Cardiff came in to land at the Spanish airport of Girona. A storm and heavy rain was observed on the Boeing 757 weather radar. The first landing attempt was unsuccessful. After establishing visual contact with the runway, the crew realized that the aircraft was not properly aligned with it and decided to go around.

The repeated landing approach was carried out by the aircraft commander in manual mode. When approaching, he was guided by the runway lights. Just before landing, these lights suddenly went out for 15 seconds. The captain was disoriented in space. Given the height and high vertical speed, he did not interrupt the landing. Later, during the investigation, the pilot explained that at that moment he relied only on “feelings”.

The first runway touchdown was with the nose landing gear and it was rigid. The plane bounced off and hit the runway again. The impact partially destroyed the front landing gear, rack and also caused damage to the control and braking systems. The aircraft skidded off the runway, bounced over an embankment, hit trees and a fence, and then came to a stop about 1,000 meters from the second touchdown.

The fuselage broke in two places. The liner lost the landing gear and both engines. The airport's emergency rescue teams delayed a lot. They arrived at the crash site a full half hour later. In addition, the rescuers searched for the plane for a long time at the beginning of the runway, and then for some time they could not reach the wreckage. During this time, at least one passenger independently ran to the terminal along the runway.

The crew independently evacuated all passengers. No one died directly in the crash, 44 people were injured. However, the passenger, who was hospitalized with minor injuries and subsequently discharged from the hospital, died five days later due to undetected internal injuries.

According to the investigation report, the main cause of the accident was the loss of external visual references by the pilot as a result of rain and the failure of the runway lighting equipment. It all happened below the go-around decision altitude and resulted in a nose-down and high vertical speed landing. There was an impact that provoked a malfunction of the aircraft's systems. This caused an increase in traction and other consequences that aggravated the situation.

The investigation showed that the power to the runway lights was restored from the backup system 15 seconds after the shutdown. The reason for this blackout was a storm and heavy rain.visual references by the pilot as a result of rain and the failure of the runway lighting equipment. It all happened below the go-around decision altitude and resulted in a nose-down and high vertical speed landing. There was an impact that provoked a malfunction of the aircraft's systems. This caused an increase in traction and other consequences that aggravated the situation.