Tenerife airport disaster

The Tenerife airport disaster happened on March 27, 1977, when two Boeing 747s collided on the ground of Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport). This crash killed 583 people on board the two flights.

Tenerife airport disaster
KLM Flight 4805 · Pan Am Flight 1736

Wreckage on the runway
Accident
Date	March 27, 1977
Summary	Runway collision
Site	Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) Tenerife, Canary Islands 28.48165°N 16.3384°W / 28.48165; -16.3384
Total fatalities	583
Total injuries	61 (All in Pan Am)
Total survivors	61 (All in Pan Am)
First aircraft
PH-BUF, the KLM Boeing 747-206B involved in the accident
Type	Boeing 747-206B
Name	Rijn ("Rhine")
Operator	KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
IATA flight No.	KL4805
ICAO flight No.	KLM4805
Call sign	KLM 4805
Registration	PH-BUF
Flight origin	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Netherlands
Destination	Gran Canaria Airport Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
Passengers	234
Crew	14
Fatalities	248 (all)
Injuries	0
Survivors	0
Second aircraft
A Pan Am Boeing 747-121, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident
Type	Boeing 747-121
Name	Clipper Victor
Operator	Pan American World Airways
IATA flight No.	PA1736
ICAO flight No.	PAA1736
Call sign	CLIPPER 1736
Registration	N736PA
Flight origin	Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles, United States
Stopover	John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, U.S.
Destination	Gran Canaria Airport Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
Passengers	380
Crew	16
Fatalities	335 (326 passengers and 9 stewards)
Injuries	61
Survivors	61 (2 pilots, 1 engineer, 4 stewards and 54 passengers)

The crash was caused for multiple reasons.

The KLM captain wanted to takeoff quickly so that he could return to Amsterdam as soon as possible. Because of a radio heterodyne, this made him misunderstand a partly garbled transmission into thinking that he was cleared by the Air Traffic Controller to takeoff, and so he began his takeoff roll, not knowing that the Pan American 747 was still on the runway..[1] At that time, the Tenerife North Airport did not have ground radar, so the controllers could not know that the KLM flight was taking off.[2]

Another reason was the fog surrounding the airport. The bad weather reduced the visibility, meaning both pilots and the controllers could not see. Because of the fog, the pilots only saw each other at the last minute, when prevention of the crash was impossible. If there was no fog, the KLM crew would have seen the Pan Am plane on the runway and would not have taken off.[2]

During the takeoff roll of KLM 4805, the crew of the Pan Am radioed that they were still taxiing down the runway. The KLM flight crew heard this and asked themselves if the Pan American was still on the runway, to which the captain then replied "oh yes".

A few seconds later, the crew of both aircraft spot each other, the captain of the Pan Am exclaiming, "there he is, that goddamn son of a bitch is coming, he's coming", and "get off, get off, get off", as full thrust was applied in an attempt to get his aircraft off the runway out of the way of the oncoming KLM.

In an attempt to leave the ground before collision, the captain rotates his aircraft, causing a tailstrike that lasts a few hundred feet. Just as the KLM leaves the ground, both 747s collide and explode, dealing major damage to the almost stationary Pan Am airplane. The KLM, without engines and main landing gear, descends back down to the runway and crashes, skidding along the pavement and explodes, killing everyone on board.

It was the worst accident in the history of aviation.[3]