The Teneife Disaster

Welcome to the first post posted on this blog! Today, we will talk about what happened during the Tenerife Airport Disaster.

On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport), on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, killing 583 people, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history. It was a super horrible crash. The Culprit? The fog. Patches of thick fog were drifting across the airfield, so, tragically, the aircraft and control tower were unable to see one another.

The collision occurred when KLM 4805 initiated its takeoff run while Pan Am 1736, shrouded in fog, was still on the runway and about to turn off onto the taxiway. The impact and resulting fire killed everyone on board the KLM plane and most of the passengers of the Pan Am plane, with only 61 survivors in the front section of the aircraft. Now, you may be wondering: Why are the two planes on the same runway at the same time? Well, you see, a terrorist incident at Gran Canaria Airport had caused many flights to be diverted to Los Rodeos ( AKA ,Tenerife North Airport,) including the two aircraft involved in the accident. The airport quickly became congested with parked airplanes blocking the only taxiway and forcing departing aircraft to taxi on the runway instead. So now you see it. The ATC at Tenerife Airport couldn’t see out the window, and that they were allowing a super dangerous maneuver: Sending two planes onto a runway at the same time. With the fog, as always, the ATC intercommunicated and sent KLM 4805 down the runway. Pan Am 1736 was sent onto the same runway and was ordered to taxi down it and turn onto the section of clear taxiway and wait until KLM 4805 was off the runway. Then, (With miscommunication) The KLM flight clipped its throttle and went straight ahead. The Pan Am And KLM Pilots both saw each other and then things went hectic. KLM 4805 pulled up as hard as he could, while Pan Am 1736 swerved as hard to the right as possible. Tragically? They collided. Both airplanes were destroyed in the collision. All 248 passengers and crew aboard the KLM plane died, as did 335 passengers and crew aboard the Pan Am plane, primarily due to the fire and explosions resulting from the fuel spilled and ignited in the impact. The rest of the survivors on the Pan Am flight crawled out onto the only intact wing, despite the running engines. (Yes the captain of Pan Am, who survived, tried to turn off the engines. Don't blame him!) The Former Town Manager of San Jose, California, was on the Pan Am Flight with his wife and were both killed.

Here is a link. This link is a animation and it can show you how devastating it was at the crash.

The First Flight, AKA the KLM:

Name: Rijn (Rhine) Registration: PH-BUF

Operator: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Aircraft: Boeing 747

The Second Flight, AKA the Pan Am

Name: Clipper Victor

Registration: N736PA

Operator: Pan American World Airways

Aircraft: Boeing 747