The Crash Of The Century ( Tenerife Airport Disaster )
This unfortunate accident happened on March 27th 1977. Pan Am flight 1736 was on its way to Gran Canaria, Canary island from Los Angeles. The flight was carrying 380 passengers and 16 crew members and is operated with B747–100 named Clipper Victor. The flight consisted of Captain, First officer and Flight engineer.
Ahead of flight 1736 was KLM flight 4805 from Amsterdam and also bound for Gran Canaria. Flight was operated with B747–200 and was a charter flight carrying 235 people. Captain of this flight was Jacob V. who was KLM’s chief flying instructor. In the cockpit there also was First officer and Flight engineer.
At 1:15 pm at Gran Canaria airport, a bomb explodes in terminal injuring one person. Aviation authorities closed the airport temporarily and diverted all incoming flights to Los Rodeos. The tower informs Pan Am and KLM flights to divert to Los Rodeos.
Los Rodeos is a small regional airport with just one runway along with one major taxiway parallel to it and several small taxiway connecting the two. KLM land first and then Pan Am. In total 5 large airliners were diverted to Los Rodeos a regional airport that couldn't easily accommodate them. So, planes need to stay at taxiway and by the way it started raining and visibility was deceased.
Captain of KLM orders aircraft to be fully refueled and at 4:30 pm KLM 747 was fully fueled and is given clearance to backtrack and hold position at runway 30. ( Back tracking involves using runway as a taxiway and then making 180 degree turn at end of runway to get in position ).
Now, dense fog covered the airport making difficult to see beyond few hundred meters. Thick fog means that the two aircraft were invisible to tower.
Tower ordered Pan Am 747 to follow KLM and exit runway at exit number 3. At first crew was unclear and asked for clarification and tower replied “ The third one “. Crew successfully identified first two taxiways but its not known whether crew was able to spot third one ( intended exit point ). Pan Am appeared to remain unsure of their position on runway.
In the meantime, KLM crew finished backtracking. Immediately after line up Captain of KLM advanced the throttles and aircraft began moving forward. First officer asked ATC for clearance and tower cleared the flight to Papa Beacon, climb and maintain flight level 90, right turn after take off. Instructions used the word “ take off “ but didn't include an explicit statement that they were cleared for takeoff.
KLM First officer repeated the instructions and replied that they were taking off. At the same point of time tower replied “ OK, stand by for take off. I will call you “. Only the word ‘ OK ‘ of this message could be heard clearly by KLM crew.
At that time Pan Am was still unsure of their position and were now exiting the runway using exit 4. But now it was too late and both the aircraft destroyed due to collision.
KLM 4805 :- 234 passengers, 14 crew members, 0 survivors and 248 fatalities.
Pan Am 1736 :- 380 passengers, 16 crew members, 61 survivors and 335 fatalities ( 326 passengers and 9 crew members ).
In total 583 people on board were killed.
Reasons :- 1) KLM Captain attempted to take off without clearance and was in rush desire to leave as soon as possible in order to comply with KLM’s duty time regulation and before weather deteriorates further.
2) Sudden fog greatly limited visibility. Control tower and crew of both planes were unable to see each other.
3) Interference from simultaneous radio transmission was making difficult to hear message.
4) Use of ambiguous non standardized phrases by Co pilot and Control tower.
5) Pan Am aircraft had not left the runway at 3rd intersection.
