THE TENERIFE DISASTER

The Tenerife Disaster took place on March 27 1977 at 17:06:56 (local time) when two giant 747's, collided on the runway, at the Los Rodeos Airport on the island of Tenerife. This resulted in the death of 583 people and remains today, as of March 2007, the disater with the most amount of fatalities (excluding ground fatalities) of any single accident. Pan Am Flight 1736. nicknames Clipper Victor, and under the command of Captain Victor Grubbs and KLM Flight 4805, nicknamed Rijn, (Rhine River), and under the command of Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, were the two aircrafts involved.

Both aircrafts had diverted to the Los Rofeos airport, due to a bomb at the Gran Canaria Airport. Once the airport opened again, the KLM crew were instructed to taxi down the runway, make a 180 degree turn at the end, and hold for takeoff. The Pan Am aircraft was instructed to taxi behind the KLM and turn in a the thrid exit, and wait until the KLM took off. However, fate had its way that day, and instead of wating for take off clearance, Captain van Zanten, who was in an almighty hurry to get going, pushed the throttled forward, without receiving take off clearance. Things would still have been okay, if the Pan Am 747 hadn't missed the third exit and continued blindly down the runway. When the KLM Captain saw the lights of the Pan Am, he pulled back to hard on his control column, in an effort to get over the other aircraft, that his tail scraped along the runway. Meanwhile, Captain Grubbs powered the engined up and spun sharply to the let, trying to get off the runway. However, in a mere few seconds, everything was over. The KLM, packed with fuel for the long trip back home, couldn't climb fast enough. It smashed through the roof off the Pan Am and struggled on, airbone for a few seconds, but crashed, just a couple of meters down the runway. Everyone onboard was killed. On the Pan Am, an immense blaze, which could not be brought under control, burtn many passengers far beyond recognition. In all, only about fifty passengers, of the three hundred something, survived. On March 27 2007, it was the thirty years since this horrible disaster. So let up take a minute, close our eyes and pray for all those who perished, on that foggy Sunday evening, so many years ago...