This portion of the transcript comes from the KLM cockpit voice recor… Get off!" The Pan Am aircraft was unable to maneuver around the refueling KLM in order to reach the runway for takeoff, due to a lack of safe clearance between the two planes, which was just 3.7 meters (12 ft). March 27, 1977. From the people who made punctuality possible", "Canary Island Separatist Says Group Planted Bomb But Did Not Cause Crash", "Experts converge on Canaries to probe plane crash", "Desert Sun 29 March 1977 — California Digital Newspaper Collection", "30 Mar 1977, Page 4 - The Naples Daily News", "The Deadliest Plane Crash - The Final Eight Minutes", "Final report and comments of the Netherlands Aviation Safety Board", "The Vulnerable System: An Analysis of the Tenerife Air Disaster", "World's deadliest airline disaster occurred 36 years ago today", "Tenerife Disaster – 27 March 1977: The Utility of the Swiss Cheese Model & other Accident Causation Frameworks", "The Evolution of Crew Resource Management Training in Commercial Aviation", "Tenerife North airport will get a new control tower, more than 30 years after world's biggest air disaster", "Around the Ranch: All about Battle Mountain", "Rancho Bernardo cross undergoes repairs", "COMUNICADO: Monumento International Tenerife Memorial donado al Cabildo; avanzan los trabajos de cimentación en la Mesa Mota", "San Jose Inside – Dutch Hamann – Part 2", "Incident: China Eastern A333 at Shanghai on Oct 11th 2016, runway incursion forces departure to rotate early and climb over A333", Survivor remembers deadliest aviation disaster in Tenerife, Official Spanish and Dutch accident reports, A-102/1977 y A-103/1977 Accidente Ocurrido el 27 de Marzo de 1977 a las Aeronaves Boeing 747, Matrícula PH-BUF de K.L.M. A tour guide had chosen not to reboard for the flight to Las Palmas, because she lived on Tenerife and thought it impractical to fly to Gran Canaria only to return to Tenerife the next day. The airport quickly became congested with parked airplanes blocking the only taxiway and forcing departing aircraft to taxi on the runway instead. A Dutch national memorial and final resting place for the victims of the KLM plane is located in Amsterdam, at Westgaarde cemetery. The investigation concluded that the fundamental cause of the accident was that captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten attempted to take off without clearance. On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets, operating KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport[1] (now Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The Tenerife crash - March 27th, 1977. Get off! Tenerife Jumbo disaster - Our picture of June 04, 1977 shows twisted wreckage of KLM Jumbo in which all passengers and crew died Sunday, Mar. The Pan Am crew appeared to remain unsure of their position on the runway until the collision, which occurred near the intersection with the fourth taxiway (C-4). [40], Los Rodeos Airport, the only operating airport on Tenerife in 1977, was closed to all fixed-wing traffic for two days. The civil aviation authorities had therefore closed the airport temporarily after the explosion, and all incoming flights bound for Gran Canaria had been diverted to Los Rodeos, including the two aircraft involved in the disaster. The word "takeoff" is now spoken only when the actual takeoff clearance is given, or when cancelling that same clearance (i.e. [41] The first aircraft that was able to land was a United States Air Force C-130 transport, which landed on the airport's main taxiway at 12:50 on March 29. [8] On August 2, 1970, in its first year of service, it also became the first 747 to be hijacked: en route between JFK and Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it was diverted to José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba. The crew asked for clarification and the controller responded emphatically by replying: "The third one, sir; one, two, three; third, third one." Both planes involved in the crash had been scheduled to depart from Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria. The full load of fuel, which had caused the earlier delay, ignited immediately into a fireball that could not be subdued for several hours. The controller's response of "OK" to the co-pilot's nonstandard statement that they were "now at takeoff" was likely due to his misinterpretation that they were in takeoff position and ready to begin the roll when takeoff clearance was received, but not in the process of taking off. [8] Its cockpit crew consisted of Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten (age 50),[9] First Officer Klaas Meurs (42), and Flight Engineer Willem Schreuder (48). Some experts speculated that the KLM plane had begun its takeoff without proper clearance, though a number of factors, including foggy weather and unusual airport traffic conditions, likely played a role in the disaster. She was therefore not on the KLM plane when the accident happened, and would be the only survivor of those who flew from Amsterdam to Tenerife on Flight 4805. At the time of the accident, Veldhuyzen van Zanten was KLM's chief flight instructor, with 11,700 flight hours, of which 1,545 hours were on the 747. The control tower and the crews of both planes were unable to see one another. Eh?" Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The collision took place in a high-density cloud. [2][3], The collision occurred when the KLM airliner initiated its takeoff run while the Pan Am airliner, shrouded in fog, was still on the runway and about to turn off onto the taxiway. Less experienced flight crew members were encouraged to challenge their captains when they believed something to be incorrect, and captains were instructed to listen to their crew and evaluate all decisions in light of crew concerns. Of the 380 passengers (mostly of retirement age, but including two children), 14 had boarded in New York, where the crew was also changed. One of the 61 survivors of the Pan Am flight said that sitting in the nose of the plane probably saved his life: "We all settled back, and the next thing an explosion took place and the whole port side, left side of the plane, was just torn wide open. Later, just as KLM flight 4805 prepared to take off from the single airstrip at Los Rodeos, the plane barreled into Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) flight 1736, which had been taxiing toward takeoff at the same time. Either message, if heard in the KLM cockpit, would have alerted the crew to the situation and given them time to abort the takeoff attempt. Pan Am Flight 1736 had originated at Los Angeles International Airport, with an intermediate stop at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). However, a terrorist bombing there earlier in the day caused the planes to be diverted to the small Los Rodeos Airport on the island of Tenerife. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. While the events in Tenerife on March 27, 1977, left the bloodiest mark in aviation's history, it also left a long-standing legacy that improved the safety of everyone onboard an aircraft. All 248 passengers and crew aboard the KLM plane died, as did 335 passengers and crew aboard the Pan Am plane,[37] primarily due to the fire and explosions resulting from the fuel spilled and ignited in the impact. Tenerife Memorial. On hearing this, the KLM flight engineer expressed his concern about the Pan Am not being clear of the runway by asking the pilots in his own cockpit, "Is he not clear, that Pan American?" The monument was designed by Dutch sculptor Rudi van de Wint.[68]. [32] First officer Meurs advised him that ATC clearance had not yet been given, and captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten responded: "No, I know that. [23], The Pan Am crew found themselves in poor and rapidly deteriorating visibility almost as soon as they entered the runway. This particular aircraft had operated the inaugural 747 commercial flight on January 22, 1970. Most of the survivors on the Pan Am walked out onto the intact left wing, the side away from the collision, through holes in the fuselage structure. Interference from simultaneous radio transmissions, with the result that it was difficult to hear the message. Tenerife plane collision caused partly by language barrier. The International Tenerife Memorial March 27, 1977, was inaugurated at the Mesa Mota on March 27, 2007. This was one of the first accident investigations to include a study into the contribution of "human factors". [42][43], Spanish Army soldiers were tasked with clearing crash wreckage from the runways and taxiways. 27 March 1977, at 13:15, a bomb exploded on the Las Palmas Airport. At least 330 people on the Pan Am plane died, but more than 60, including the pilot, survived the impact and fire. 1977: Hundreds dead in Tenerife plane crash At least 560 people have died after two jumbo jets collided on a runway in the holiday destination of Tenerife. Because the flight crew was performing the checklist, copying the clearance was postponed until the aircraft was in takeoff position. Despite the terrible loss of life as a result of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001, the tragic accident at Los Rodeos still retains the dubious title of having the highest number of fatalities (excluding those on the ground) of any single incident in aviation history. The KLM 747 was within 100 m (330 ft) of the Pan Am and moving at approximately 140 knots (260 km/h; 160 mph) when it left the ground. [17], Shortly afterward, the Pan Am was instructed to follow the KLM down the same runway, exit it by taking the third exit on their left and then use the parallel taxiway. The crowded airport had placed additional pressure on all parties, including the KLM cockpit crew, the Pan Am cockpit crew, and the controller; Sounds on the CVR suggested that during the accident the Spanish control tower crew had been listening to a. When it became clear that the KLM aircraft was approaching at takeoff speed, Captain Grubbs exclaimed, "Goddamn, that son-of-a-bitch is coming! The airport was forced to accommodate a great number of large aircraft due to rerouting from the terrorist incident, resulting in disruption of the normal use of taxiways. Slaton was dispatched from Torrejon Air Base just outside of Madrid, Spain. Documentaries Crash of the Century - Victor F. Grubbs was portrayed by Randall Holden. Corrections? 747 jumbo jet crash scene. The C-130 transported all surviving and injured passengers from Tenerife to Las Palmas; many of the injured were taken from there to Air Force bases in the United States for further treatment. The following day, the Canary Islands Independence Movement, responsible for the bombing at Gran Canaria that started the chain of events that led to the disaster, denied responsibility for the accident. A terrorist incident at Gran Canaria Airport had caused many flights to be diverted to Los Rodeos, including the two aircraft involved in the accident. Warns had 15,210 flight hours, of which 559 hours were on the 747. Immediately after lining up, the KLM captain advanced the throttles and the aircraft started to move forward. There were two aircraft involved in the accident – KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, aircraft from the United States and the Netherlands respectively. … The tower instructed the KLM to taxi down the entire length of the runway and then make a 180-degree turn to get into takeoff position. and "We are still taxiing down the runway, the Clipper 1736!" The next cloud was 900 m (3,000 ft) down the runway and moving towards the aircraft at about 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h).[25]. It happened more than four decades ago, but the Tenerife airport disaster in Spain is still the deadliest plane crash of all time. This message was also blocked by the interference and inaudible to the KLM crew. That smash happened after a bomb exploded at Las Palmas Airport in Gran Canaria – her intended destination – and saw the plane she was traveling on diverted to Tenerife. The KLM crew then received instructions that specified the route that the aircraft was to follow after takeoff. While waiting for Gran Canaria airport to reopen, the diverted airplanes took up so much space that they were having to park on the long taxiway, making it unavailable for the purpose of taxiing. Both planes, the KLM flight … KLM Flight 4805 was a charter flight for Holland International Travel Group and had arrived from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands. (Originally published by the Daily News on March 29, 1977.) Updates? Slaton, who was a flight surgeon attached to the 613th Tactical Fighter Squadron, worked with the local medical staff and remained on scene until the last survivor was air lifted to awaiting medical facilities. Mar 29, 2017 at 12:33 PM . [10], Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten was KLM's chief of flight training and one of their most senior pilots. Both planes involved in the crash had been scheduled to depart from Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria. ", while first officer Robert Bragg yelled, "Get off! Aviation authorities around the world introduced requirements for standard phrases and a greater emphasis on English as a common working language. KLM paid the victims' families compensation ranging between $58,000 and $600,000 (or $245,000 to $2.5 million today, adjusted for inflation). Following is a list of passengers on the Pan American Boeing 747 airliner who were killed in the Canary Islands crash, as provided Monday to The Associated Press by Pan American officials: At 2:00 in the afternoon, a thick fog rolled into the usually quiet Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Veldhuyzen van Zanten emphatically replied "Oh, yes" and continued with the takeoff.[35]. In desperation, the pilots prematurely rotated the aircraft and attempted to clear the Pan Am by lifting off, causing a 22 m (72 ft) tailstrike. The Spanish government installed a ground radar system at Tenerife North Airport following the accident.[14][65]. Footage was included in the 1979 film Days of Fury, narrated by Vincent Price. At 13:15, a bomb planted by the separatist Canary Islands Independence Movement exploded in the terminal of Gran Canaria Airport, injuring eight people. [20], The angle of the third taxiway would have required the plane to perform a 148-degree turn, which would lead back toward the still-crowded main apron. The right-side engines crashed through the Pan Am's upper deck immediately behind the cockpit. The authorities reopened Gran Canaria airport once the bomb threat had been contained. Only two controllers were on duty that day. About two months before the accident, he had conducted the Boeing 747 qualification check on the co-pilot of Flight 4805. Because of that, parking area in Los Rodeos was filled with other planes, diverted from Las Palmas. Meurs read the flight clearance back to the controller, completing the readback with the statement: "We are now at takeoff. Tenerife Airport, Canary Island. The search for a missing Dutch family of four, who had not returned to the waiting KLM plane, delayed the flight even further. Los Rodeos, renamed Tenerife North Airport (TFN), was then used only for domestic and inter-island flights until 2002, when a new terminal was opened and Tenerife North began to carry international traffic again. The KLM jet was carrying 14 crew members and 235 passengers, including 52 children. March the 27, 1977 was Sunday. [16] While the KLM was backtaxiing on the runway, the controller asked the flight crew to report when it was ready to copy the ATC clearance. It remains the worlds deadliest air disaster. y Aeronave Boeing 747, matrícula N736PA de PANAM en el Aeropuerto de los Rodeos, Tenerife (Islas Canarias), Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission, Human Factors Report on the Tenerife Accident, 1947 KLM Douglas DC-3 Copenhagen disaster, December 1958 Aviaco SNCASE Languedoc crash, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tenerife_airport_disaster&oldid=1006894863, Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 747, Airliner accidents and incidents involving ground collisions, Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error, Airliner accidents and incidents involving fog, CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2019, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, Articles with Spanish-language sources (es), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Just 61 people survived, all from the Pan Am jumbo jet. [10][38] KLM had suggested initially that Veldhuyzen van Zanten should help with the investigation, not realising that he was the KLM captain who had perished in the accident. [6] The sum of settlements for property and damages was $110 million (or $464 million today),[51] an average of $189,000 (or $797,000 today) per victim, due to limitations imposed by European Compensation Conventions in effect at the time. Never was it imagined that two giant aircraft could ever collide with each other, yet it still happened. Disaster on Tenerife: History’s Worst Airline Accident Stunned survivors mill about the burning wreckage of Pan American Boeing 747 Flight 1736 after it collided with another 747, KLM 4805, at Los Rodeos Airport on the island of Tenerife on March 27, 1977. The Tenerife Airport Disaster occurred at just before 5:07pm on 27 March 1977. The Pan Am's engines were still running for a few minutes after the accident despite first officer Bragg's intention to turn them off. In March 1977, two jumbo jets collided at Tenerife Airport killing 583 people. Neither of the doomed planes should have been on Tenerife island on March 27, 1977 but as fate had it, they were. "[36], Both airplanes were destroyed in the collision. [24], Meanwhile, the KLM plane was still in good visibility, but with clouds blowing down the runway towards them. Its nose landing gear cleared the Pan Am, but its left-side engines, lower fuselage, and main landing gear struck the upper right side of the Pan Am's fuselage,[10] ripping apart the center of the Pan Am jet almost directly above the wing. In 1978, a second airport was opened on the island of Tenerife – the new Tenerife South Airport (TFS) – which now serves the majority of international tourist flights. [15] The airport had only one runway and one major taxiway running parallel to it, with four short taxiways connecting the two. [62], Cockpit procedures were also changed after the accident. On March 27th, 1977, a Boeing 747 of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines collided fatally with a 747 of Pan American Airlines on the runway of Los Rodeos International Airport on the Canary island of Tenerife. The two Boeing 747s were … [52] These included: The extra fuel taken on by the KLM added several factors: As a consequence of the accident, sweeping changes were made to international airline regulations and to aircraft. [4] Dutch investigators placed a greater emphasis on a mutual misunderstanding in radio communications between the KLM crew and ATC,[5] but ultimately KLM admitted that their crew was responsible for the accident and the airline agreed to financially compensate the relatives of all of the victims. Takeoff was delayed by an extra 35 minutes, allowing time for the fog to settle in; Over forty tons of additional weight was added to the aircraft. [14], Air traffic instruction must not be acknowledged solely with a colloquial phrase such as "OK" or even "Roger" (which simply means the last transmission was received),[61] but with a readback of the key parts of the instruction, to show mutual understanding. Both islands are part of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain located in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Morocco. [39], The following day, the Canary Islands Independence Movement, responsible for the bombing at Gran Canaria that started the chain of events that led to the disaster, denied responsibility for the accident. The crew began the taxi and proceeded to identify the unmarked taxiways using an airport diagram as they reached them. The KLM aircraft is ahead of the Pan Am aircraft (see Figure 1 below). Go ahead, ask." Use of ambiguous non-standard phrases by the KLM co-pilot ("We're at take off") and the Tenerife control tower ("OK"). Most of the KLM passengers were Dutch; also on board were 4 Germans, 2 Austrians and 2 Americans. Tenerife airline disaster, runway collision of two Boeing 747 passenger airplanes in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, that killed more than 580 people. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). March 27, 1977 is a date permanently etched in aviation history. Drifting clouds of different densities cause wildly varying visibilities, from unhindered at one moment to below the minimums the next. Cockpit procedures were also reviewed, contributing to the establishment of crew resource management as a fundamental part of airline pilots' training.[7]. A terrorist's bomb has exploded … Later, when KLM executives first get word of the crash, they will attempt to contact Van Zanten in hopes of sending him to Tenerife to aid the investigation team. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The flight engineer was the only member of the KLM's flight crew to react to the control tower's instruction to "report when runway clear"; this might have been due to him having completed his pre-flight checks, whereas his colleagues were experiencing an increased workload, just as the visibility worsened. According to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), the Pan Am captain said, "There he is!" It's March 27, 1977. Runway collision at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, 1977-03-27; 583 fatalities, "Tenerife crash" redirects here. March 27, 1977. Omissions? On March 27, 1977, two 747 jumbo jets crash into each other on the runway at an airport in the Canary Islands, killing 582 passengers and crew members. The Pan Am aircraft had not left the runway at the third intersection. Tenerife airline disaster, runway collision of two Boeing 747 passenger airplanes in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, that killed more than 580 people. At the time of the accident, Grubbs had 21,043 hours of flight time, of which 564 hours were on the 747. Advertisement. The aircraft was a Boeing 747-206B, registration PH-BUF, named Rijn (Rhine). Meurs then radioed the tower that they were "ready for takeoff" and "waiting for our ATC clearance". These include the Survival in the Sky episode "Blaming the Pilot", the Seconds From Disaster episode "Collision on the Runway", PBS's NOVA episode "The Deadliest Plane Crash" in 2006, the PBS special Surviving Disaster: How the Brain Works Under Extreme Duress (based on Amanda Ripley's book The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why) in 2011, Destroyed in Seconds and an episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday (known by different names in different countries), namely the season 16 standard length episode "Disaster at Tenerife" with the earlier more in-depth 90-minute "Crash of the Century" being a spin-off. The ALPA study group concluded that the KLM crew did not realize that the transmission "Papa Alpha one seven three six, report when runway clear" was directed at the Pan Am, because this was the first and only time the Pan Am was referred to by that name. Hierarchical relations among crew members were played down, and greater emphasis was placed on team decision-making by mutual agreement. Both Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten, a KLM training captain and instructor for over ten years, had not flown on regular routes during the twelve weeks prior to the accident. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Both planes got diverted to Tenerife The impact and resulting fire killed everyone on board KLM 4805 and most of the occupants of Pan Am 1736, with only 61 survivors in the front section of the aircraft. Schreuder had 17,031 flight hours, of which 543 hours were on the 747. In addition, neither of the aircraft could be seen from the control tower, and the airport was not equipped with ground radar. It was the worst crash in aviation history. The sudden fog greatly limited visibility. "[4], The controller, who could not see the runway due to the fog, initially responded with "OK" (terminology that is nonstandard), which reinforced the KLM captain's misinterpretation that they had takeoff clearance. [19] There were no markings or signs to identify the runway exits and they were in conditions of poor visibility. The new crew consisted of Captain Victor Grubbs (age 56), First Officer Robert Bragg (39), Flight Engineer George Warns (46) and 13 flight attendants. A study carried out by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) after the accident concluded that making the second 148-degree turn at the end of taxiway C-3 would have been "a practical impossibility". The first crash investigators to arrive at Tenerife the day after the crash travelled there by way of a three-hour boat ride from Las Palmas. The year was 1977, and the Boeing 747 was only in its eighth year of service with the world’s airlines, yet it was already the most glamourous commercial airliner ever built. Captain Grubbs applied full power to the throttles and made a sharp left turn towards the grass in an attempt to avoid the impending collision. aviation disaster, Tenerife, Canary Islands [1977]. On the runway sat two fully loaded jumbo airliners. Additionally, an ATC clearance given to an aircraft already lined-up on the runway must be prefixed with the instruction "hold position". Other major factors contributing to the accident were: The following factors were considered contributing but not critical: The Dutch authorities were reluctant to accept the Spanish report blaming the KLM captain for the accident. [6], The disaster had a lasting influence on the industry, highlighting in particular the vital importance of using standardized phraseology in radio communications. [34], Due to the fog, neither crew was able to see the other plane on the runway ahead of them. Previously, the Pan Am had been called "Clipper one seven three six", using its proper callsign. Two Boeing 747 crashed causing the death of 583 people. [11] His photograph was used for publicity materials such as magazine advertisements, including the inflight magazine on board PH-BUF. The increased severity of the fire caused by the crash led ultimately to the deaths of all those on board. [21] The official report from the Spanish authorities explained that the controller instructed the Pan Am aircraft to use the third taxiway because this was the earliest exit that they could take to reach the unobstructed section of the parallel taxiway. Patches of thick fog were drifting across the airfield, hence visibility was greatly reduced for pilots and the control tower. Tenerife was an unscheduled stop for both flights. One of the inbound passengers, who lived on the island with her boyfriend, chose not to re-board the 747, leaving 234 passengers on board.[10][11]. [44] Los Rodeos was fully reopened on April 3, after wreckage had been fully removed and engineers had repaired the airport's runway.[45]. An explosion at a nearby airport had redirected air traffic to the undermanned airfield this island. Survivors waited for rescue, but it did not come promptly, as the firefighters were initially unaware that there were two aircraft involved and were concentrating on the KLM wreck hundreds of meters away in the thick fog and smoke. [13] There had been a phone call warning of the bomb, and another call received soon afterwards made claims of a second bomb at the airport. Because of the awareness of second bomb, the airport was closed, and every flight with destination GCLP were diverted on small airport of Los Rodeos on Tenerife. Five hundred and eighty-three people lost their lives; only 61 survived the air disaster. The apparent hesitation of the flight engineer and the first officer to challenge Veldhuyzen van Zanten further. [4] About 70 personnel were involved in the investigation, including representatives from the United States, the Netherlands[46] and the two airline companies.
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