“It’s only a matter of time before some AA employee, hired for skin color, or sexual preference, or gender and dumb as a post flies an airliner with 500 people in it into another airliner with 500 people in it.”
On March 27, 1977 two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The collision occurred when KLM Flight 4805 initiated its takeoff run during dense fog while Pan Am Flight 1736 was still on the runway. All 248 passengers and crew aboard the KLM plane died, as did 335 passengers and crew aboard the Pan Am plane. Pilot error was blamed in the investigation but there were indications of air traffic control issues. Sounds on the CVR suggested that during the accident the Spanish control tower crew had been listening to a football match on the radio and may have been distracted.
This collision between two jumbo jets occurred decades before the current FAA push for diversity hiring.
A bomb set off by the Canary Islands Independence Movement at Gran Canaria Airport had caused many flights to be diverted to Los Rodeos, including the two aircraft involved in the accident. The airport quickly became congested with parked airplanes blocking the only taxiway and forcing departing aircraft to taxi on the runway instead. Patches of thick fog were drifting across the airfield, so visibility was greatly reduced for pilots and the control tower.[2][3]
The subsequent investigation by Spanish authorities concluded that the primary cause of the accident was the KLM captain’s decision to take off in the mistaken belief that a takeoff clearance from air traffic control (ATC) had been issued.[4]
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You are exactly correct. I have little doubt that CLEAR, SPECIFIC and CORRECT instructions from ATC guys would have resulted in this accident not happening.
FYI, there were 61 survivors on the Pan Am. KLM did assume responsibility for liability. With 583 fatalities, it remains the deadliest accident in aviation history. But, in my opinion, Affirmative Action will eventually kill more.
Sir, I was dealing with the cousin of “diversity/equity hiring” in the seventies in sub contracts with the City of Austin. “Diversity Hiring” is just a 21 st century term for “Affirmative Action”. In the seventies/eighties, one game the City played back then was you had to have certain minority percentages NOT in employees but in your sub contracts if you were a General Contractor. I sued and they quickly threw in the towel.
Moreover, the Air Traffic Controllers on Tenerife were watching a football game on or about the time of the accident. Government’s hire low caliber people in the name of diversity and affirmative action. Air Traffic Controllers are akin to brain surgeons. They screw up, somebody usually dies. Remember that next time you buy a plane ticket.