Tenerife Airport Disaster was the deadliest plane crash in history that killed 583 people and prompted air traffic control to avoid phrases such as ‘okay’
On this day in 1977, a KLM flight and a Pan Am flight collided on the tarmac at the Spanish airport, resulting in the deaths of 583 people.
Due to bad weather, the pilots on the two planes were unable to see each other from a distance and were relying on air traffic control to guide them.
The error was only spotted when the KLM flight was just 2,000ft away from the Pam Am plane – but it was already too late.
Seconds before crashing, Pan Am pilot Victor Grubbs was recorded saying: “Look at him! Goddamn, that son of a bitch is coming!”
The KLM aircraft’s undercarriage and engines hit the top of the Pan Am plane at speed, resulting in a catastrophic crash.
Pan Am co-captain Robert Bragg, who died in 2017, told BBC’s Witness in 2016: “When he hit us, it was a very soft boom.
“I then looked up for the fire control handles and that’s when I noticed the top of the aeroplane was gone.”
There were survivors of the crash
Robert managed to escape along with a number of other lucky survivors.
“One poor lady jumped first and everyone else jumped on her, broke her back and both legs and both arms.”
After five minutes, the fuel tank blew up, sending flames “250 feet in the air,” as the aircraft fell apart.
Passengers Warren Hopkins and his wife Caroline were on the Pan Am flight, and told their story to Jon Ziomek for his new book Collision on Tenerife: The How and Why of the World’s Worst Aviation Disaster.
Despite bleeding from his head, Warren jumped from the plane, severing two tendons in his foot, while Caroline also jumped and broke the bones in her shoulder.
Another passenger, Joani Feathers, revealedhow she saw a Pan Am crew member decapitated by the explosion while trying to escape.
They were just some of the 61 people to survive the crash; none of the KLM passengers or crew survived.
Why did the Tenerife Airport Disaster happen?
The collision of the two planes was attributed to a number of issues.
Earlier that day, a bomb explosion at Gran Canaria Airport that injured eight people, followed by a second bomb threat by the Canary Islands Independence Movement, led to extra planes being diverted to the airport in Tenerife.
With a large number of aircraft landing, the entrance to the main runway was blocked.
It meant that planes were forced to taxi on the runway itself, before making a 180 degree turn to take off.
It was also a foggy day, meaning a much lower visibility for pilots.
Because of this, Pan Am missed their assigned turn off at exit three and taxied to exit four instead, keeping them on the runway for much longer than expected.
However, what was also factored in the final incident report were the key phrases used by pilots and air traffic control which caused confusion and misunderstanding.
The incident report filed in 1977 explained that there was a breakdown in communication due to the ambiguous use of the words “okay” and “take off”, as well as the different accents and languages involved.
The report gives an example of the problem this caused during the incident: “The controller then said, “Okay (pause) stand by for takeoff, I will call you.”
