Air crash: shock at Spanish judge's ruling

Chris Morgan, 55, and her husband Elvet, 77, from Coronation Road, Blackwood, were aboard the stricken Boeing 757 Britannia Airways flight which crash landed at Gerona Airport, Spain, during a thunderstorm in September 1999.

She told the Argus she was "shocked" after a Spanish judge in Gerona cleared the 55-year-old veteran pilot Brendon Nolan, his co-pilot and a Spanish air traffic controller, of any blame for the disaster at a hearing on Friday.

All 235 holidaymakers on board, who were on their way to resorts on the Costa Brava, survived the crash.

The judge said all three had acted with "heroic professionalism" and ordered the investigation to be shelved.

Mrs Morgan is among passengers fighting Thomson Holidays, the tour operator with which most of the travellers had booked their package deal, saying the firm is liable for psychological injuries received as a result of the crash.

She said of Friday's judgement: "I think it has lessened our chances of winning our case."

Mrs Morgan relived the terror of that fateful night when the plane was caught in a raging storm. "It was sheer hell - there were people screaming and children crying.

"There was a sense of not knowing what was going to happen.

"My husband was comforting me but I thought - this is it, we are going to die.

"When he eventually crash landed we were surrounded by the stench of leaking fuel which we feared would explode.

"It was a total nightmare and a miracle we survived."

Mrs Morgan said she needed counselling and was forced to give up her job as a manager of Barnado's as a result of the crash.

She is joined in her claim by 72 fellow passengers, including another Blackwood woman, Jane Griffiths, 47, from Albany Road.

Earlier this month at Cardiff county court Judge Graham Jones heard the representations of the passengers and Thomson Holidays before adjourning the case to a date to be fixed to consider his judgement.