The flight entered clouds at FL 300 (about 30,000 feet or 9,100 metres), the crew selecting "continuous ignition" and turning on engine anti-ice to protect their turbofan engines from the effects of precipitation and icing, either of which is capable of causing a flameout, where the engines lose all power. Despite flying a route between the two areas of heavy precipitation shown on radar, they encountered heavy rain, hail, and turbulence. Passing through 16,500 feet (5,000 m), both engines flamed out, leaving the jet gliding with neither engine producing thrust or electrical power. The auxiliary power unit (APU) was started as the plane descended through 10,500 feet (3,200 m), restoring electrical power. While attempts to "windmill start" the engines using the airflow generated by the plane's descent were unsuccessful, the pilots were later able to start them using the engine starters, which were powered by the APU. However, neither engine would accelerate to normal idle speed, much less to a point where it was producing meaningful thrust. Attempts to advance the throttles only resulted in overheating of the engines, so they were once more shut down to avoid catastrophic failure.
At this point, the pilots began to prepare for a ditching, as no runway was reachable with the remaining altitude. Dardano lined up with a canal and prepared the aircraft for a water landing. During this time, Lopez spotted a grass levee to the right of the canal, and suggested that the landing be attempted there. Dardano agreed, and landed the airliner in an unpowered glide adjacent the narrow grass levee on the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) industrial complex