Page 35 - Fire Services Journal 2018

Islands. A militant separatist group set off a small bomb at Las Palmas Airport on Gran Canaria, closing that field and rerouting air traffic to the much-smaller Los Rodeos Airport on Tenerife.
With the apron at Los Rodeos full of airplanes, overworked controllers began directing incoming flights onto taxiways that intersected the main runway. Both Pan Am 1736 and KLM 4805 were sent to taxiways. Van Zanten took the opportunity to refuel his aircraft, which took about 35 minutes. As soon as refueling was completed, he fired up his engines.
Both captains were eager to get going, especially Grubbs, who had already flown for eight hours and was tired. Their anxiousness, coupled with the tower’s occasionally unclear instructions of how to proceed through the morass, helped set the stage for what happened next.
In an attempt to move Pan Am 1736 off the main runway, controllers instructed Grubbs to turn onto taxiway 3 (although taxiway 4 would have been better logistically to set up for takeoff). In any case, the weather was deteriorating. Grubbs was unfamiliar with Los Rodeos and had trouble locating the correct taxiway in reduced visibility.
Van Zanten, in KLM 4805, had gassed up and was maneuvering toward takeoff himself. He was aware of the Pan Am jumbo, but had no visual contact. He asked for takeoff clearance and was told to stand by. Whether he misheard the instruction, or ignored it, van Zanten proceeded to go. What he didn’t know was that Pan Am 1736 was taxiing down the runway directly toward him, still looking for its assigned taxiway.
As the cockpit voice recorder later revealed, Pan Am first officer Robert Bragg spotted the KLM jumbo’s landing lights through the fog and screamed to Grubbs, who tried to steer his plane off the runway. It was too late.
The Collision
According to the CVR, Captain Grubbs, captain of the Pan Am plane, said, “There he is.” when he spotted the KLM’s landing lights through the fog just as his plane approached exit C-4. When it became clear that the KLM was coming towards them at takeoff speed, Grubbs exclaimed,
“Goddamn, that son-of-a-bitch is coming straight at us!” while the co-pilot Robert Bragg yelled, “Get off! Get off! Get off!”. The Pan Am crew applied full power to the throttles and took a sharp left turn towards the grass in an attempt to avoid a collision. By the time Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten noticed the Pan Am on the runway ahead, his aircraft was already traveling too fast to stop. In desperation he prematurely rotated his aircraft and attempted to clear the Pan Am by climbing away, causing a tailstrike for 20m (100ft).
The KLM was within 100m (330 ft) of the Pan Am when it left the ground. As it did so, its excessively steep angle of attack allowed the nose gear to clear the Pan Am but the engines, lower fuselage and aft landing gears struck the upper right side of the Pan Am’s fuselage at approximately 140 knots (260 km/h; 160 mph), ripping apart the center of the Pan Am jet almost directly above the wing. The right side engines crashed through the Pan Am’s upper deck immediately behind the cockpit.
"BOTH CAPTAINS WERE EAGER TO GET GOING, ESPECIALLY GRUBBS, WHO HAD ALREADY FLOWN FOR EIGHT HOURS AND WAS TIRED. THEIR ANXIOUSNESS, COUPLED WITH
THE TOWER'S OCCASIONALLY UNCLEAR INSTRUCTIONS OF HOW TO PROCEED THROUGH THE MORASS, HELPED SET THE STAGE FOR WHAT HAPPENED NEXT."
HISTORY
CGI RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FATAL COLLISION
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