A Boeing 747
was completely ready for takeoff on the runway. Amidst huge fog, the pilot
raised the plane's control lever, turned on the headlights, and the aircraft
crossed its take-off speed, a speed from which it is impossible to return.
Still, at this moment, a shadow began to appear between the nose, and this was
the shadow of another Boeing 747, which was now just a few meters away on the
same runway, traveling in the opposite direction. What happened after that is
also difficult to imagine. The question is how the air traffic was able to
reach here, and what small mistake occurred that created aviation history. This
sad story of the most dangerous incident came to light in the Canary Islands of
Spain, which the world today remembers as the Tenerife airport disaster.
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| Tenerife Airport disaster |
This journey starts a day before, on 26 March 1977, when Pan Am Flight 1736, a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, takes off from Los Angeles airport. It had to land in New York and pick up some passengers; then its final destination was Las Malpas, the city of Cannery Island on the ocean. This was a chartered flight and was completely booked for this reason, in which most of the passengers were of middle age who intended to enjoy the cruise ship in Las Malpas. Las Palmas is the capital of the Canary Islands, which is the southernmost part of Spain, 100km from the coast of Morocco. This place is quite famous in the world due to its tropical climate.
But in 1977,
there was a political tension behind the beautiful place of Cannery Island. A
group called MPAIAC was raising its voice for the independence of Cannery
Island from Spain. And for its campaign, this group often resorted to violence,
and in this way, the dangerous area starts with a violent event. Panam Flight
1736 picked up passengers from New York's JFK International Airport and was airlifted towards Las Palmas Island. Its cabin crew included 56-year-old
captain Victor Grubbs, first officers 39-year-old Robert Bragg and 46-year-old
flight engineer George Wan, along with 13 flight attendants and 380
passengers. These were all the details of Pan Am Flight 1736. Now she was
cruising across the Atlantic Ocean.
Now let's talk
about the other airplane, which was to be the victim of this incident, KLM
flight 4805, was getting ready at Amsterdam airport in the Netherlands. It was
also a Boeing 747, and it was to go to Las Palmas, a city on the Canary Islands.
Its cabin crew included 50-year-old captain Jacob, 42-year-old first officer
Klaas Samit, and 48-year-old flight engineer Williams. There were 11
flight attendants and 235 passengers on board. KLM flight 4805 took off from
Amsterdam International Airport after boarding. Now, both these aircraft were
headed towards Las Palmas airport on Cannery Island. During this time, 2 people
go towards the terminal building at the Las Palmas airport and a bag outside a
flower shop. After keeping it, they disappear somewhere. A kind of bag in which
a bomb was planted along with a countdown timer.
At 1 pm in the afternoon, a call comes to the reception of Las Palmas airport. The people on the other side said that they belonged to the MPAIAC group, the same group that we mentioned at the beginning of the story. And they said that after the next 15 minutes, there is going to be a bomb blast at Las Palmas airport. The airport staff got the entire Las Palmas airport evacuated within 15 minutes as soon as they came into the forum action, and now this thing turned into fear when, after exactly 15 minutes, a powerful blast took place at the airport. Due to this blast, a large part of the roof of the terminal building collapsed, but after this, all the activities of Las Palmas airport were suspended, and all the flights were cancelled, and the flights that were to land here were also cancelled.
They were diverted and after some time, KLM flight 4805, coming from Amsterdam,
had already reached Las Palmas, but the air traffic controller informed them
about the blast that was going to happen at the airport and instructed the
flight to land at the airport on Tenerife Island, which was 110 km away from
here.
The captain of KLM, after flying the airplane in the air for a majestic 25 minutes, landed it on runway 30 of the Tenerife airport at 1:38 minutes in the afternoon. At the same time, Panama flight 1736, coming from New York, had already reached Las Palmas and was also diverted to the Tenerife airport. At this time, all the flights were being diverted to the Tenerife airport because it was the nearest airport to all. Now, as soon as you looked, there was a rush at the Tenerife airport. Let me tell you here that Tenerife Airport is a small airport in the eastern area.
It is very close to the Atlantic Ocean. Its height is
around 2000 feet. This area is high. It has fallen from the rains, and in the
same way, when the winds of the Atlantic Ocean collide with the mountains and
move upwards, they become strong and change into clouds, and all this happening
suddenly is also normal here. When PanAm flight and KLM flight landed at
Tenerife airport, the visibility was absolutely fine, but due to sudden clouds,
the visibility had become low. When clouds occurred on the runway, the
visibility became 300 meters or even kilometers, and at a distance of only 2 km,
everything could be seen clearly.
Now it was not confirmed for how long they had to stay at the airport. The passengers disembarked so that they could freshen up a bit after the long flight. After this much time, KLM flight 4805, which had to return to Amsterdam, thought of refilling its fuel tank. If Las Palmas airport opens back, then time would not be wasted in refueling there. They had just started refueling. The news of the Las Palmas airport opening came. Both flights took passengers on board, but due to KLM's refueling, the taxiway was blocked. Tenerife Airport is a small airport where there is only one runway, one taxiway, and one apron where a terminal has been built. There is so much rush here.
It was quite unusual, and that too the rush
of the jumbo Boeing could not leave the Panam Air terminal and go to the runway
due to the refueling of KLM flight 4805. They were told that until the
refueling of KLM was completed, they would have to wait near the terminal.
After 4 o'clock, 45 minutes, the refueling of KLM was completed, and the captain
started preparations to move away from the taxiway.
Now because the apron was blocked by other aircraft which also blocked the taxiway, that is why to go to the east end of the runway for takeoff, the controller instructed the KLM pilots who were parked exactly on the west side of the taxi way, to taxi on the runway only, go to the east end in an easterly manner and take a 180 degree turn and prepare for takeoff. When KLM 4805 started taxiing, the controller instructed Panam Air to follow KLM on the runway only but should go to the taxiway from C3 exit because KLM 4805 had to take off on this same runway, the visibility was quite low and KLM was getting worse every minute 4805 crossed the entire runway while taxiing and came to the eastern end and took a 180 degree turn and came to the takeoff position.
The pilots of Pan Am also started taxiing on the runway, but due to the smog, they could see C1 and C2 but missed exit C3 because the C3 exit was going towards the return apron, and due to this, they could not see C3. Secondly, there was also a shortage of mask signs at the Tenerife airport. Signs are put up on the terminal itself for runway exit, but here, these mask signs were missing.
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| Tenerife Airport disaster |
After hearing the control tower's message to the Panam flight, the KLM flight engineer informed the captain that, as of right now, it is still on the runway but do not know why, the captain understood something else in the noise and just said this much oh yes and the take-off continued, due to the smog he could only see an area of 300 meters, during this time suddenly the headlights appeared to the pilot of Panam in the middle of the smog on the runway, he thought that might stop the KLM flight but in the next moment he realized that it is heading towards them with great speed, he tried to stop the plane but now It had been too late, the right engine of KLM took over the first class portion of Panam, the landing garage also broke and the plane fell 150 meters away on the runway and a horrific fire erupted in it because its fuel tank was full, so the intensity of the fire can be easily estimated. In this, all 248 passengers died on the spot.
The passengers of the Pan Am flight did not even get a chance to
think about what finally happened. The first-class passengers died on the spot,
but some passengers of the economy class below got a chance to come out of the
trap. Many passengers jumped from a height of 20 feet. Save your lives by
taking action; out of the 396 passengers of Panam flight only 61 people could
have survived alive, most of the people could have survived alive but due to
the smog the control tower came to know about this accident a little later,
that too when the other plane standing on the apron saw the fire raging on the
runway and informed the control tower.
The rescue
teams could not drive the vehicles at high speed due to the smog; a total of
583 people died in this accident. During the investigation, the cockpit voice
recorders of both places were examined, and from here all the details were
found out, which you have read in this story. The investigation team arrived at
the conclusion that there was a chain of events behind this accident. First
there was the bomb blast in Las Palmas, then KLM had to fill its fuel tank at
Tenerife airport and block the taxi way, if they had not done so, Panam flight
1736 would have taken off first, after that visibility suddenly became low and
Panam had to miss the C3 exit, then the investigation team held the crew
members of KLM flight 4805 responsible for this incident, why did they continue
the take-off without air permission when for 5 seconds the first engineer had
stopped the captain; the Tenerife airport disaster proved to be a wake-up call
for the entire aviation.
After this
incident, many changes were made in the aviation industry, call signs were
changed, their rules were changed, radar was made mandatory at all airports,
and holding points and indicators on the runways were made compulsory. Today,
there are two airports on Tenerife Island where this incident occurred, and they are located in the north. A new airport has been built in the south, where the altitude is low, and visibility is not affected by clouds and fog.
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The Tenerife Airport disaster
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Airport disaster bodies |
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Tenerife Airport Disaster documentary
Tenerife Airport disaster photo
Tenerife Airport Disaster Report
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Tenerife
Airport Disaster 1977 |
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