Page 33 - Fire Services Journal 2018

HISTORY
AVIATION'S BLACKEST DAY: THE TENERIFE DISASTER
BAR 9/11, THE TENERIFE DISASTER OF 1977 REMAINS THE SINGLE GREATEST CATASTROPHE IN AIRLINE HISTORY. HOWEVER, THE ENTIRE TRAGEDY COULD SO EASILY HAVE BEEN AVERTED.
VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE ACCIDENT. CREDIT: LIFO TEAM (WWW.LIFO.GR)
LOCAL TENERIFE POLICE OFFICER IN THE WAKE OF THE DISASTER AT LOS RODEOS AIRPORT, 27 MARCH 1977.
On Sunday March 27th, 1977 two Boeing 747 passenger planes - Pan Am flight 1736 originating in Los Angeles, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight 4805, a charter from Amsterdam - collided on a fog-shrouded runway at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people. Sixty-one people survived the accident, which came about as the result of an unprecedented and bizarre confluence of events that led to severe overcrowding at the runway of the tiny Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife.
These unforeseen factors, coupled with inclement weather, a series of crucial miscommunications, malfunctioning runway lights, and the fatally poor
judgment of a veteran pilot, led to the catastrophic crash which shocked the world and remains the worst non-terrorism related disaster in aviation history. Looking back at the tragedy, what is most shocking is how easily preventable the entire incident could have been. If the communications between pilots and control tower had been conducted in a clear and unambiguous manner, the huge loss of life could have been easily avoided.
The KLM jumbo was under the command of Capt. Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, a seasoned pilot so popular and photogenic that the airline used him both in its
marketing materials and as a de facto company spokesman. Although van Zanten was KLM's most experienced 747 pilot, he had spent most of his time recently in simulators, training other pilots for the service. This lack of recent experience has since been cited as a factor in what unfolded in Tenerife. When news of the disaster reached KLM officials they tried to find van Zanten, only to discover he had been the pilot involved. Pan Am 1736 was piloted by Capt. Victor Grubbs, who came aboard when the plane made an intermediate stop in New York. The chain of events leading up to the crash began earlier in the day at another airport in the Canary
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