The Story Of The Tenerife Airport Disaster
7 minute read
The crash of two Boeing 747s at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) in 1977 was the deadliest in history. They collided on the runway after the departing KLM aircraft started its take-off run before the taxiing Pan Am aircraft had vacated the strip. 583 lives were lost. The crash was primarily due to pilot error and departure without clearance, but there were several contributing factors.
The KLM 747-200 involved in the crash – it had departed without confirmed clearance. Photo: clipperarctic via Wikimedia
The two 747s involved
The crash involved two heavily loaded passenger 747s colliding on the runway. The 747s involved were operated by KLM and Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). Both aircraft had diverted to the airport that day and were preparing to depart to continue their journeys to Gran Canaria.
Feb 20, 2021
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Clear communication is key in everything we do, and body language and non-verbal communication make up a large proportion of this. So how do we communicate effectively when we are unable to see the person we are talking to, who may, in fact, be hundreds of miles away at the end of a crackly radio frequency?
The Pan Am jet
Credit: Getty
The “life” of an aircraft is generally quite a mundane thing. It spends 30 or so years in the sky, flying through the same grooves of airspace, with nothing more worrying than the occasional bout of turbulence or heavy weather to ruffle its mechanical feathers. True, it touches down on runways in exotic places and far-flung locations – assuming it is flying long-haul routes. But its three-decade existence is usually a repetitive slog, peppered with an overhaul or two. The afterlife may bring a last photo-opportunity, if the retiree makes it to the fabled aviation “boneyard” in the Mojave Desert. In most cases, though, the final act is a dismantling for reusable parts, and an unsentimental scrapping of everything else.