A Britannia Airways Boeing 757-200 (G-BYAG) aquaplaned and skidded off the right side of runway 20 at Gerona, north eastern Spain on 15 September following hours of frontal thunderstorms. The accident happened just before midnight local time on a charter flight from Cardiff, UK.
The aircraft, with 245 passengers and crew on board, careered across soaking ground and down a low embankment before coming to rest in a field. Eleven people were slightly injured.
Between storms, the wind was reported as light northerly, with visibility at 5km (2.7nm) reducing to 2km in storms. Runway 20 is 2,400m (7,850ft) long, with a notable downslope, but has an instrument landing system. The pilot is alleged already to have flown two abandoned approaches.
• The pilots of the LAPA Boeing 737-200 that overran the Buenos Aires Aeroparque runway on 31 August ignored an aural configuration warning at the start of the take-off run, the cockpit voice recorder reveals. Study of the wreckage indicates that the warning may have been triggered by a failure to set flap/slats to the take-off position. The pilots reacted by checking the rudder trim, which can trigger the warning. Take-off was abandoned when they realised that the aircraft was failing to get airborne.
Source: Flight International
