Daily Star
44 years ago today, the deadliest air accident in history was brought about by a tragic misunderstanding, and an incredible series of coincidences.
583 people lost their lives when two Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife.
The tragedy was brought about, originally, when a bomb planted by the separatist Canary Islands Independence Movement exploded in the terminal of Gran Canaria Airport.
Eight people were directly injured by the bomb, and fears of a second device led to all flights heading for Gran Canaria to be rerouted to Los Rodeos.
Among the diverted flights were Flight 4805 from Amsterdam operated by Dutch airline KLM and Pan Am Flight 1736 which was inbound from Los Angeles via New York.
The small airport at Los Rodeos was barely large enough to accommodate the sudden influx of traffic, which included the arrival of five airliners.
That led to aircraft being crammed onto the airport’s taxiway, forcing pilots to taxi into takeoff position using the runway itself. Adding to the difficulties for aircrew and air traffic control, patches of thick fog began to drift across the airfield, severely reducing visibility.
Neither of the two doomed airliners had been scheduled to land on Tenerife at all, both originally being bound for Las Palmas on the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria.
The pilot of Flight 4805 was Jacob van Zanten, one of KLM’s most experienced flyers. But on March 27, 1977, senior the pilot who had logged more than 11,000 hours in the cockpit made a mistake that still baffles aviation experts today.
Due to a communications mixup with the airport control tower, van Zanten began his takeoff despite the Pan Am Jumbo still taxiing along the same runway.
Making matters worse, interference between the two Jumbos’ radios caused vital instructions to go unheard.
Even though the KLM jet’s flight engineer voiced some doubts about the instructions van Zanten thought he had heard from the tower, the 230-foot aircraft began its takeoff run. All 248 people aboard were in their lives’ final minutes.
The cockpit voice recorder of the Pan Am jet captured the moment that its pilots saw the KLM flight looming out of the fog.
Captain Victor Grubbs shouted “There he is!” as he spotted the other Jumbo, adding “Goddamn, that son-of-a-bitch is coming!” as he realised that the other aircraft was accelerating to takeoff speed.
Despite the 56-year-old Pan Am pilot desperately trying to accelerate his aircraft off the runway, and the KLM crew forcing their airliner into an early take-off the two planes came together – with the Dutch aircraft slamming into the upper section of its American counterpart at around 160mph
The midsection of the taxiing Pan Am jet was torn apart as the KLM plane’s undercarriage and left side engines ploughed into its upper deck just behind the cockpit.
Flight attendant Joan Jackson, one of the few survivors from the Pam Am plane, told PBS: “I thought, “Oh my god, we’re trapped. I felt so responsible, because I couldn’t take care of my passengers, and so helpless…and looking back and knowing that there is nothing you can do. You can’t get back in the aircraft. There’s no way to get in it, and it’s all on fire.”
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