Tenerife Disaster

[Ptarmigan]

Does anyone here remember Tenerife Disaster on March 27, 1977? It happened after the KLM collided with the Pan Am in heavy fog while taking off. Both were Boeing 747 airplanes, a -100 and -200. 583 people died in the disaster, making it the worst aviation accident and second worst aviation disaster after 9/11. It started with a series of events, a bombing at the Gran Canaria International Airport, all the airplanes diverted to Tenerife, fog rolling in, and an inpatient Captain Jacob Van Zanten misunderstanding radio communications. He took off without permission.


Photo taken before both KLM and Pan Am crashed.

Project Tenerife
Wikipedia-Tenerife Disaster
Air Disaster-Tenerife Disaster
ASN-KLM Flight 4850
ASN-Pan Am Flight 1736

[bijou]

I remember it, Tenerife is a popular holiday destination for Brits so it was big news.  It is interesting to note that the reason both planes were there was that a terrorist bomb had closed another airport in the Canary Islands.

[Ptarmigan]

I remember it, Tenerife is a popular holiday destination for Brits so it was big news.  It is interesting to note that the reason both planes were there was that a terrorist bomb had closed another airport in the Canary Islands.

It was a series of chain of events that led to this. A terrorist bombing that did not kill anyone that time. From I have read, it was big news. I have seen documentaries about this disaster.