What happened
Shortly after departing from Barcelona Airport for a flight bound to Brussels under nighttime conditions, the flight crew reported technical difficulties to air traffic control. Following this report, permission was granted to perform an emergency landing back at the origin airport.
While executing the approach toward runway 07, the aircraft descended through altitudes of 6,000 feet and 3,000 feet. At approximately 00:00:15, the aircraft crossed the outer marker at an altitude of 1,500 feet while traveling at 170 knots. As the plane reached a distance of six kilometers from the runway threshold, it began drifting to the right of the established approach path. One minute later, the aircraft type impacted the ground at a speed of 130 knots within a palmgrove area located 3.2 km before the runway. The impact was followed by a post-crash fire that destroyed the aircraft. There were 2 fatalities involving both pilots.
Findings
Official investigations could not definitively identify the specific nature of the technical issues reported by the crew, though a partial failure of the left engine remained a possibility. The accident was attributed to an inappropriate descent angle during the approach to runway 07, occurring under low visibility conditions. Contributing factors included potential crew fatigue following an extended duty period and the possible necessity for the pilots to manage yaw compensation due to a malfunctioning left engine, which led to the aircraft deviating from its path and descending below the minimum descent altitude.