Posted on 03/27/2017 7:50:26 PM PDT by RckyRaCoCo
In all, 583 people were killed. Just 61 survived. Monday marks the 40th anniversary of the deadliest aviation disaster in history, when two jumbo jets collided on March 27, 1977.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I remember that very vividly.
The irony....
Investigators pinned most of the blame on the KLM pilot, Jacob van Zanten, who was considered such an exceptional flier he was the face of the company.
I remember this. There’s also several documentaries about it on the internet.
Told my sister she may have flown on the MD-80(eventually NW255), I know she flew into ONT on a MD-80 in the mid-80’s(still Republic Airlines then...before it merged into Northwest). I do not believe they(Republic)had that many in their fleet(10?). Also NW255 was still in Republic livery(except for replacing the Republic name with Northwest) at the time of the crash.
The youtube computer simulation is just freaky scary to watch.
It’s not quite irony.
The adverts where van Zanten appeared featured his commitment to punctuality. If you read the transcript or listen to voice recorder, it was van Zanten who appeared to get impatient and began the take off procedure prior to confirming runway clearance.
That’s not irony, that’s negligence.
I was stationed at the embassy in Rome when this disaster happened. A buddy of mine was a consular officer and he was dispatched to the site. His job was to identify the dead as well as he was able and inform the families. It was a pretty grisly affair.
Deadliest? I’D classify 9-11 as an aviation disaster!
Investigators pinned most of the blame on the KLM pilot, Jacob van Zanten, who was considered such an exceptional flier he was the face of the company.
...
He lost his patience and thought he was bigger than the situation.
The airport was packed and everybody was late due to a separatist terror attack earlier in the day.
What went wrong that day:
1. A bomb exploded in the main airport in the Canary Islands, forcing all traffic to divert to Tenerife.
2. Las Rodeos wasn’t equipped to handle 747s.
3. There was only one runway at Las Rodeos.
3. it was a Sunday, so only two air traffic controllers were working.
4. The Pan Am wanted to take off first, but was blocked by the KLM plane and could almost get around it, but there was just a few feet too little of space.
5. Because all the 747s weren’t backed up, the planes couldn’t go down the taxi runway. They had to go down the main runway, turn around, and then take off.
6. The airport didn’t have ground radar.
7. The ground lights weren’t working.
8. It was the end of the month and the KLM crew was under a lot of pressure not to fly too many hours in the month.
9. A family from the KLM flight had wandered off, thereby putting even more pressure on the KLM.
9. To save time later, the KLM decided to refuel—and filled it all the way to the top, which is usually not done. It made the plane very heavy, which became a key factor later.
10. Everyone on both planes had worked a long day and was tired.
11. The Pan Am misinterpreted the order to take the third exit.
12 A heterodyne (simultaneous transmission) blocked crucial information that the
the Pan Am was still on the runway.
13. The fog rolled in and the planes couldn’t see each other.
14. The pilot of the KLM was using nonstandard terminology and there appeared to be some miscommunication about what was meant by “takeoff.”
15. The crew of the KLM was so busy with pre-takeoff checks that all but the navigator missed crucial information.
16. 747s aren’t particularly maneuverable on the ground, so the Pan Am didn’t have sufficient time to get out of the way.
17. The one way to survive when the planes saw each other was for the KLM to take off over the Pan Am. Without the added gas weight, that might even have worked.
Sad. Incredible, but sad.
The taxi way was blocked by the KLM on the fuel pad, thus Pan Am missed an opportunity to depart when the flight restrictions, due to a terrorist attack, were lifted. After the hour plus delay fog swept in across the airport at dusk.
Two overtaxed tower operators gave confusing instructions to Pan Am, per a taxi down the runway in trail of the KLM, instructing a turn off the runway which appeared would require a 135 degree turn onto a diagonal if it were the correct location. Pan Am was consulting the tower about the correct exit at that point.
KLM had no clearance for the take-off roll, the KLM co-pilot could be heard on the voice recorder stating the Pan Am had not confirmed being clear of the runway. The pilot discounted that possibility and commenced acceleration. KLM had taken a full refuel, therefore required a longer takeoff roll and could not clear the Pan Am still on the runway.
Dutch citizen Robina van Lanschot, working as a local tour guide upon Tenerife, survived as she refused to re-board the KLM. This wasn’t the proper port of entry; but, the fateful decision to go directly to her apartment worked to her favor despite the legal impropriety of skipping customs entry on Grand Canary.
Of all that list, the very limited visibility was in my mind, the most decisive, as it has been in so many aircraft crashes.
pong
I have taken off in conditions of extremely limited visibility but within minimums . Once I have been given the clearance "okay for departure" I know the runway ahead of me is clear. Did he get the "okay for depature?" If he did the KLM Captain is blameless. If he did not he is totally responsible for the horrible tragedy.
Me too. We watch Air Disasters on the Smithsonian channel. It brings back sad memories of downed flights going back years. I don’t care if I ever fly again. Those days are behind us.
>> The investigations revealed that the primary cause of the accident was the captain of the KLM flight taking off without clearance from air traffic control (ATC).[4] The investigation specified that the captain did not intentionally take off without clearance; rather he fully believed he had clearance to take off due to misunderstandings between his flight crew and ATC.[4] Dutch investigators placed a greater emphasis on this than their American and Spanish counterparts,[5] but ultimately KLM admitted their crew was responsible for the accident, and the airline financially compensated the victims’ relatives. <<
I’d say if there were any ambiguities ... and it’s not clear that the pilot could recognize any ... that given the unusual circumstances, the pilot needed to have taken an abundance of caution.
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