What happened
A charter flight operated by a De Havilland Comet, registration G-APDN, departed Manchester at 16:08 for Barcelona. Due to air traffic control delays near Paris, the flight followed an alternative route. At 17:53 local time, the crew established contact with Barcelona ACC and received clearance to descend from FL220 to FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFL90. Shortly after, at 17:59, the aircraft transitioned to Barcelona Approach control.
Under instructions from Barcelona Approach, the crew was cleared to fly direct to the Sabadell beacon and descend to FL60 while performing a left turn toward a heading of 140 degrees. During this maneuver, the pilot incorrectly reported that the aircraft had passed the Sabadell NDB. At that precise moment, another aircraft passed over the Sabadell area, which prevented the air traffic controller from identifying the mistake in the report.
Following this erroneous report, the controller authorized a descent to 2,800 feet. At approximately 18:05, the Comet struck trees on the northeast side of the cloud-obscured Les Agudes peak at an altitude of roughly 3,800 feet. The impact resulted in the total destruction of the aircraft and 112 fatalities. The wreckage was located in the Sierra del Montseny region, near Arbúcies.
Findings
The investigation concluded that the accident was caused by a miscommunication regarding navigational reporting points. Both the flight crew and the air traffic controller operated under the false assumption that the aircraft had reached the Sabadell NDB. This error was compounded by the presence of another radar echo over the waypoint, which masked the discrepancy during the descent clearance.