Tenerife North Airport formerly Los Rodeos Airport was the scene of the deadliest plane crash when 583 people lost their lives
In recent months there has been a spate of air crashes.
One of the most devastating earlier this year was on January 29 when an American Airlines flight collided with an army helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport .
The mid air collision killed all 67 aboard the DC flight and all three soldiers on the Black Hawk helicopter.
But the deadliest collision of two aircrafts – and the deadliest aviation accident – is the Tenerife airport disaster which killed 583 people. There were only 61 survivors.
The crash took place on the ground – not in the sky – when two 747s collided on a foggy runway on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
On midday on March 27, 1977, Pan AM Flight 1736 from Los Angeles was nearing the Canary Islands – heading to Las Palmas Gran Canaria Airport.
However a bomb at the airport set off by the Canary Islands Independence Movement meant that the flight had to be diverted to Los Rodeos Airport on the island of Tenerife.
There were fears that a second bomb would go off at any moment – so all arrivals were suspended.
Just ahead of the Pan AM was another jumbo jet from the Dutch airline KLM.
After taking off from Amsterdam Schipol Airport, it too was heading to Gran Canaria’s airport Las Palmas – and had been diverted to Tenerife.
Both planes along with several others landed in the tiny airport which was more used to dealing with light aircrafts. It had only one runway and very limited parking space for Boeing 747s.
The KLM captain, Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten was a very senior KLM pilot, who as well as training many of the newer pilots, he also appeared on KLM adverts and promotional materials.
He was very frustrated about the subsequent delay because his plane had to return to Amsterdam after Las Palmas – and was in danger of going over flying time limits. He can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder: “I’ve seen postage stamps bigger than this place. Now we’re going to get some boxed in here, goddammit.”
The two airport controllers on the usually quiet Sunday shift were presiding over a traffic jam, the likes of which they had never been seen before.
Since all the runways were blocked with aircraft, they proposed to use the main one as a taxiway. So the planes would take it turns to taxi down to the far end, turn round and take off.
There was another concerning issue – the weather. Clouds were gathering around the airport and it was getting very foggy.
When Las Palmas airport reopened, controllers began directing the diverted planes – one by one.
The KLM plane had allowed its passengers to wait in the terminal with the Captain deciding to use the extra time to refuel – taking on 55 tonnes – enough to get him back to Amsterdam.
Due to the refueling – the Pan Am had to wait for the KLM flight to take off because it was stuck behind the plane.
The Pan Am crew made jokes about the KLM captain’s apparent disregard for holding them up by refuelling and his dismissive response when they made contact with him over the radio.
But once the KLM pilot finished refueling and passengers had returned to the plane, it began moving as quickly as it could. Captain van Zante was determined to fly out as soon as possible – even though visibility was very poor due to the fog.
The pilot was groping around the fog as it moved down the runway while the Pan Am followed down the runway also, instructed to leave at one exit ensuring he was safely out of the way for when KLM turned around and speed back down the runway to take off.
The control tower asked if Pan Am was clear of the runway – the crew replied they were still not clear but were making its necessary turn. However the KLM was already beginning to careering back down the runway.
By the time the KLM captain saw the Pan Am plane it was too late. On the cockpit voice recorder, the last words of the Pan Am pilot Victor Grubbs before the KLM plane smashed into his can be heard clearly: “There he is… look at him. Goddamn that son-of-a-bitch is coming!”
The KLM crashed into the Pan Am – taking off most of the roof of the American Airlines plane before making it into the air for seconds and then slamming into the ground and exploding in a ball of fire – due to the additional fuel it was carrying. All 248 people – including crew died.
The investigation into the crash was one of the largest in aviation history, involving more than 70 officials from Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States.
The log of conversations between the two planes and the control tower in the minutes leading up to the collision was the key tool for the investigators.
Ultimately the main cause of the accident was the KLM captain taking off without clearance – something his fellow crew members tried to warn him about – as heard on the cockpit voice recorder.
The junior co -pilot had been trained by the captain so may not have felt he could directly challenge him.
The Dutch authorities believed there were language misunderstandings between the plane crews and controllers that were also to blame – and also that the recordings picked up the sound of a football match that the controller were listening to while on shift.
The extra fuel taken on by the KLM meant that takeoff was delayed by an extra 35 minutes, allowing time for the fog to settle.
The additional fuel also slowed the plane down, making it more difficult to clear the Pan Am when taking off.
The fateful decision to load more fuel – meant the fire was much bigger than it would have been – giving no chance of survival for those on board.
Beginning with the bomb threat at Las Palmas – the Tenerife disaster was not a result of a single thing but involved a chain of events that together led to fatality. However the biggest cause was the KLM pilot taking off without waiting for clearance.
Victor Grubbs and his co-pilot Robert Bragg were among the 61 survivors.
After what happened in Tenerife, international airline regulations were drastically changed: flight crews and air traffic controllers were mandated to use standardized English phrases, decision-making by mutual agreement became the norm, and crew resource management was streamlined, according to PBS – so that officers would be able to confidently challenge the lead captain.