*** Welcome to piglix ***

Tenerife airport disaster

Tenerife airport disaster
KLM Flight 4805 · Pan Am Flight 1736
Accident summary
Date March 27, 1977
Summary Pilot error, runway incursion, heavy fog, limitations and failures in communication
Site
Los Rodeos Airport
(now Tenerife-North Airport)
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Total fatalities 583
Total injuries (non-fatal) 61
Total survivors 61
First aircraft
KLM 747 (7491686916).jpg
PH-BUF, the KLM Boeing 747-206B
involved in the accident
Type Boeing 747-206B
Name Rijn ("Rhine")
Operator KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Registration PH-BUF
Flight origin Schiphol Airport
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Destination Gran Canaria Airport
Canary Islands, Spain
Passengers 234
Crew 14
Fatalities 248 (all)
Survivors 0
Second aircraft
Boeing 747-121, Pan American World Airways - Pan Am AN1399875.jpg
A Pan Am Boeing 747-121
similar to the one involved
Type Boeing 747–121
Name Clipper Victor
Operator Pan American World Airways
Registration N736PA
Flight origin Los Angeles Int'l Airport
Los Angeles, United States
Stopover John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport
New York City, United States
Destination Gran Canaria Airport
Canary Islands, Spain
Passengers 380
Crew 16
Fatalities 335 (326 passengers, 9 crew)
Injuries (non-fatal) 61
Survivors 61
External images
PH-BUF (KLM 4805) - Airliners.net
N736PA (Pan Am 1736) - Airliners.net

On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport), on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Canary Islands. The crash killed 583 people, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history. As a result of the complex interaction of organizational influences, environmental conditions, and unsafe acts leading up to this aircraft mishap, the disaster at Tenerife has served as a textbook example for reviewing the processes and frameworks used in aviation mishap investigations and accident prevention.

A bomb explosion at Gran Canaria Airport, and the threat of a second bomb, caused many aircraft to be diverted to Los Rodeos Airport. Among them were KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736 – the two aircraft involved in the accident. At Los Rodeos Airport, air traffic controllers were forced to park many of the airplanes on the taxiway, thereby blocking it. While authorities waited to reopen Gran Canaria, a dense fog had developed at Tenerife, which greatly reduced visibility and further complicated the situation.

When Gran Canaria reopened, the parked aircraft blocking the taxiway at Tenerife required both of the 747s to taxi on the only runway in order to get in position for takeoff. The fog was so thick that neither aircraft could be seen from the other, and the controller in the tower could not see the runway or the two 747s on it. As the airport did not have ground radar, the controller could only find where each airplane was by voice reports over the radio.

The disaster occurred in Spanish territory, making Spain responsible for investigating the accident. The crash involved aircraft from the United States and the Netherlands, and both of those countries appointed representatives to the investigation. The investigations revealed that the primary cause of the accident was the captain of the KLM flight taking off without clearance from air traffic control (ATC). The investigation specified that the captain did not intentionally take off without clearance; rather he fully believed he had clearance to take off due to misunderstandings between his flight crew and ATC. Dutch investigators placed a greater emphasis on this than their American and Spanish counterparts, but ultimately KLM admitted their crew was responsible for the accident, and the airline financially compensated the victims' relatives.


...
Wikipedia

...