The Deadliest Aviation Accident in History

           The Canary Islands are the place to be. Located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco and Western Sahara, the Canaries have a subtropical climate, beautiful beaches, and several important historical locations, including multiple world heritage sites. However, the canaries are also known for something very negative, as well. One of the islands in the Canary archipelago is called Tenerife. You may have never heard of the island of Tenerife, but it was here that the worst disaster in aviation history occurred. From the first plane crash in history to modern times, never has any other crash had as high a death toll.

            The date was March 27, 1977. The primary airport in the Canary Islands, located on Las Palmas, was temporarily closed. Earlier in the day, a bomb had exploded in the Canary Island airport flower shop. It had been planted there by Canary Island separatists, and as a result, all flights scheduled to land there were diverted to the Las Rodeos airport in Tenerife. Among these flights diverted were KLM flight 4805 and Pan Am flight 1736, both being Boeing 747s.

            The day was extremely busy and stressful for the air traffic controllers of Los Rodeos Airport. Between the time of the explosion of the bomb at Las Palmas and 4:00 p.m. (the time that Las Palmas re-opened) they were responsible for twice the volume of air traffic as usual.

            At 1:44 p.m., KLM flight 4805 arrived at Los Rodeos from Amsterdam with 248 passengers aboard. They were directed by the air traffic controller to park at the far end of the runway until Las Palmas reopened and could begin accepting traffic again. Pan Am flight 1736 from Los Angeles arrived at 3:00 with 394 individuals aboard, and landed on the same runway as KLM flight 4805. Air traffic controllers instructed it to also park at the end of the runway, directly next to KLM 4805. They did so.

            At 4:00, the call came in from Las Palmas that it was ready to begin accepting traffic again. Within minutes, Pan Am flight 1736 was ready for takeoff, but because of the lack of room and angle at which the two airliners faced each other, the KLM flight had to be the one to take off first. However, the KLM was not ready to take off, because it requested that it receive extra fuel before takeoff.

            The day had been beautiful. But, as the KLM was receiving extra fuel, a strange thing happened. Fog started rolling down off the hills and completely engulfed the airport. Visibility was reduced to almost nothing in a short period of time. After receiving fuel, the KLM is ready to take off. Because of the congested condition of the airport, the air traffic controllers tell the KLM that it will need to taxi to the far end of the runway it was sitting on and make a 180 degree turn before using the runway to take off, in the direction of Pan Am 1736.

            Air traffic control instructs Pan Am 1736 to temporarily pull off the runway. It makes an attempt to, but misses its assigned turnoff, due to the heavy fog. This is no big issue, and air traffic control instructs it to continue on until it comes to the next turnoff. At the same time, KLM 4805 gets the route clearance. However, the KLM pilot, captain Van Zanten, mistakes this for the takeoff clearance, and begins accelerating the plane for takeoff. Because of the fog, he cannot see Pan Am 1736, still on the runway, and coming directly toward him as it looked for the next turnoff.

 

            It was at this moment that the radio communication KLM 4805 and air traffic control temporarily malfunctions, and silence from the control tower leads Van Zaten to believe that all is well. He continues with takeoff.

            The fatal moment: once captain Van Zanten sees the KLM directly in front of him, he has only seconds to react. He attempts a premature takeoff and almost succeeds. However, the added weight from the fuel that had just put in the plane weighed it down just enough to ensure a collision. The KLM slams into the topside of the Pan Am, and the planes explode into a massive ball of fire.

A computer-generated image of the moment of impact between the two enormous airliners.

Miraculously, there are 61 survivors; all of them being on the Pan Am flight. Every single other person, including all 248 individuals on the KLM, died. Altogether, 583 people died in this tragic accident. Thankfully, this kind of death toll has never been seen from any other airliner accident, and we all hope that that remains the case. Chances of that are decent, actually, because this accident brought about changes in airport and air traffic control policies, leading to safer airport practices ever since then.