Tenerife Airport is located in the Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa.
(Location of Canary Islands)
On March 27, 1977. Two B-747 Aircraft collided on the runway of Tenerife Airport. This accident killed 583 people and became the deadliest accident in the history of aviation.
(Aircraft that involved in the Accident)
On March 27, Afternoon
Two Aircraft KLM's flight KL4805 and Pan Am's PA1736 started approaching to Gando airport in Gran canary island. KLM from Netherlands and Pan Am from Los Angeles. KLM's captain Mr. Veldhuzyen Van Zanten has 11,000 hours of flying experience and Pan Am's captain Mr. Victor Grubbs has 21,000 hours of flying experience. Two flights have almost reached the airport. At this moment Gando airport received an anonymous call and said some bomb is placed in the airport terminal. Immediately airport staff started evacuating the terminal, in a few moments a bomb exploded at Gando airport terminal and all the flights are diverted to nearby airports. Both KLM and PanAm flights are diverted to Tenerife airport.
(Tenerife Airport)
Tenerife airport has a lot of flights to handle but the airport is not much big to handle too many flights at the same time. KLM and PanAm flights landed. On that day airport had only two ATC officers controlling the whole situation. Due to many flights whole parking area and taxiways are blocked with aircraft. This is a very challenging situation for ATC officers.
Later after a few hours, Tenerife airport received a call from Gando airport informing that they reopened the airport for flights to land and take off. ATC officers immediately started working to send a few aircraft to Gando airport. They informed KLM and PanAm to get ready for takeoff to Gando airport. KLM is refueling their aircraft and PanAm is just behind the KLM and both flights are waiting to start their journey.
A new problem arrived at this moment, weather started changing into the worst huge fog started coming into the airport from long distance and covered airport. It decreased the visibility level from 10km to 3km and 3km to 500m in just minutes. which means pilots can't even see the runway right in front of their aircraft.
(Low visibility Cockpit view)
Even though ATC officers instructed KLM to backtrack on runway followed by PanAm. (Backtrack - Aircraft taxing on the runway in the opposite direction to the take-off and making a turn around at the end of the runway to start takeoff)
Now, Both 747s are on the same runway making backtrack as instructed by ATC officers with less than 500m visibility.
( This is how the incident happened )
Once the KLM reached the end of the runway and started making a turnaround to take off ATC instructed PanAm to clear the runway by entering into the C-3 taxiway. But, PanAm pilots were unable to see the taxiway. In this time KLM completed its turnaround and standing face to face with PanAm. KLM is now waiting for the clearance from ATC to take off.
KLM contacted ATC for their takeoff clearance. ATC said "KL4805 you got clearance to travel with the allotted air route" it doesn't mean to take off now this is where the error occurred KLM captain misunderstood the information and thought they got takeoff clearance. After a few seconds ATC said KLM to "standby for takeoff I will call you". But, KLM is already started running on the runway.
PanAm pilots heard the KLM taking off and they immediately turned their aircraft and tried to move it away to clear the runway. KLM pilots also noticed that one more aircraft is on the runway. As they already started taking off instead of slowing down the plane and stopping it KLM captain made another huge mistake by deciding to increase the engine speed and tried to take off in mid-runway. But, aircraft didn't fly as it didn't gain the required trust. In no time both 747's collided on the runway.
No one survived in KLM flight (234 pax + 14 crew ) and 61 out of 335 ( 326 pax + 9crew) survived in PanAm flight. 583 people died in total and became the deadliest accident in the history of the world's Aviation.
( VFX footage of Tenerife Disaster)
Reasons that caused terrible disaster:
Bomb blast at Gando airport: If there is no explosion happened at Gando airport. Everything would have been normal. Explosion made the aircraft to divert which increased the traffic at Tenerife airport that increased the pressure to ATC.
Fully Crowded Tenerife airport: Due to a huge crowd it became difficult to handle all the aircraft at a time and that's the reason why ATC instructed two aircraft to backtrack at the same time.
Unexpected weather conditions: Sudden change in weather and fog covering the airport which is the reason for low visibility.
A wrong decision taken by KLM Captain: If KLM captain tried to slow down the aircraft and stop it 583 people lives may not be ended. Maybe they cannot stop the aircraft but it definitely wouldn't be such a disaster. Because colliding with low speed is much better than colliding with high speed.
ATC failing to provide accurate information: If the ATC officers informed clear information KLM will hold till the PanAm cleared the runway.
Whatever the reason is it showed an impact on the total aviation industry and left a tragic mark. Technology became more advanced now and a lot of actions and safety measures were taken after this incident hopefully these kinds of tragic events may not occur again.
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