Flight and Communication Timeline
The Comet, registered G-APDN, departed Manchester at 1608 for a charter flight to Barcelona. ATC delays in the Paris area resulted in a different route being flown. At 1753 LT, the pilot contacted Barcelona ACC. The aircraft was cleared to descend from FL220 to FL90. At 1759 LT, the flight switched to Barcelona Approach, which cleared the crew direct to the Sabadell beacon and to descend to FL60.
Misreported Position
While carrying out a left turn to a heading of 140°, as instructed by Barcelona Approach, the crew mistakenly reported passing the Sabadell NDB. At that time, another aircraft overflew Sabadell, causing the error to go unnoticed by the controller. The controller then cleared the Comet to descend to 2,800 feet.
Impact and Wreckage
At approximately 1805 LT, the aircraft struck beech trees on the northeast slopes of the cloud-covered Les Agudes peak at an altitude of about 3,800 feet and crashed. The wreckage was found in the Sierra del Montseny, near the village of Arbúcies. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 112 occupants have been killed.
Probable Cause
The official investigation determined that the probable cause was: "the combination of erroneous information regarding reporting points, together with the existence of a radar echo over Sabadell NDB (coinciding with the report from the aircraft of passing that reporting point), led both the aircraft and APP to believe, erroneously, that the aircraft was already over Sabadell; this was an involuntary error (on both sides: ATC and aircraft) which was physically impossible to correct when Air Traffic Control realised it."