Il en va ainsi de la catastrophe de Tenerife, aux Canaries, avec la collision de deux Boeing 747 sur la piste d'un aéroport ayant causé la perte, le 27 mars 1977, de 583 vies. when he spotted the KLM's landing lights through the fog just as his plane approached exit C-4. Pour l’anecdote ma novia (fiancée ou « petite-amie » en français) habitait et habite toujours à Los Rodeos, un faubourg de San Cristobal de la Laguna. The International Tenerife Memorial March 27, 1977, was inaugurated at the Mesa Mota on March 27, 2007. The controller then immediately added "stand by for takeoff, I will call you",[4] indicating that he had not intended the instruction to be interpreted as a takeoff clearance. Tenerife airline disaster, runway collision of two Boeing 747 passenger airplanes in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, that killed more than 580 people. One of those survivors was Purser Dorothy Kelly. "[4] Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten interrupted the co-pilot's read-back with the comment, "We're going. Their destination was Gran Canaria Airport (also known as Las Palmas Airport or Gando Airport), serving Las Palmas on the nearby island of Gran Canaria. The controller's response of "OK" to the co-pilot's nonstandard statement that they were "now at takeoff" was likely due to his misinterpretation that they were in takeoff position and ready to begin the roll when takeoff clearance was received, but not in the process of taking off. [48] The Netherlands Department of Civil Aviation published a response that, while accepting that the KLM captain had taken off "prematurely", argued that he alone should not be blamed for the "mutual misunderstanding" that occurred between the controller and the KLM crew, and that limitations of using radio as a means of communication should have been given greater consideration. Despite the terrible loss of life as a result of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001, the tragic accident at Los Rodeos still retains the dubious title of having the highest number of fatalities (excluding those on the ground) of any single incident in aviation history. Of the 380 passengers (mostly of retirement age, but including two children), 14 had boarded in New York, where the crew was also changed. [52] These included: The extra fuel taken on by the KLM added several factors: As a consequence of the accident, sweeping changes were made to international airline regulations and to aircraft. Le 27 mars 1977 deux Boeing 747 vont entrer en collision sur l’aéroport de Tenerife-Nord aux Canaries. The sudden fog greatly limited visibility. [14], Los Rodeos was a regional airport that could not easily accommodate all of the traffic diverted from Gran Canaria, which included five large airliners. On March 27, 1977, shortly after 5 p.m. local time, Pan Am 1736 and KLM 4805 collided on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport in the Canary Islands. In desperation, the pilots prematurely rotated the aircraft and attempted to clear the Pan Am by lifting off, causing a 22 m (72 ft) tailstrike. Later, just as KLM flight 4805 prepared to take off from the single airstrip at Los Rodeos, the plane barreled into Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) flight 1736, which had been taxiing toward takeoff at the same time. [20], The angle of the third taxiway would have required the plane to perform a 148-degree turn, which would lead back toward the still-crowded main apron. Warns had 15,210 flight hours, of which 559 hours were on the 747. Cockpit procedures were also reviewed, contributing to the establishment of crew resource management as a fundamental part of airline pilots' training.[7]. The monument was designed by Dutch sculptor Rudi van de Wint.[68]. Taxiway C-4 would have required two 35-degree-turns. Get off!" The official investigation suggested that this might have been due not only to the captain's seniority in rank, but also to his being one of the most respected pilots working for the airline. ", while first officer Robert Bragg yelled, "Get off! March 27, 1977 is a date permanently etched in aviation history. Eventually, most of the survivors on the wing dropped to the ground below. At the time of the accident, Veldhuyzen van Zanten was KLM's chief flight instructor, with 11,700 flight hours, of which 1,545 hours were on the 747. [24], Meanwhile, the KLM plane was still in good visibility, but with clouds blowing down the runway towards them. At the end of C-3, the Pan Am would have to make another 148-degree turn, in order to continue taxiing towards the start of the runway, similar to a mirrored letter "Z". The investigators suggested the reason for this was a desire to leave as soon as possible in order to comply with KLM's duty-time regulations (which went in place earlier that year) and before the weather deteriorated further. The KLM crew then received instructions that specified the route that the aircraft was to follow after takeoff. Quand deux Boeing 747 se sont percutés sur la piste de décollage du petit aéroport de Tenerife, aux îles Canaries, sous un dense brouillard le 27 mars 1977, 583 personnes ont perdu la vie. Shortly after they turned onto the runway it decreased to less than 100 m (330 ft). Footage was included in the 1979 film Days of Fury, narrated by Vincent Price. 27 février 27 avril Chronologies thématiques Croisades Ferroviaires Sports Disney Anarchisme Catholicisme Abréviations / Voir aussi (° 1852) = né en 1852 († 1885) = mort en 1885 a.s. = calendrier julien n.s. ): Type: Collision (Une collision est un choc direct entre deux objets. The remains of the KLM jumbo jet that collided with a Pan Am Jumbo at Los Rodeos airport, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Mar. In addition, neither of the aircraft could be seen from the control tower, and the airport was not equipped with ground radar. [17], Shortly afterward, the Pan Am was instructed to follow the KLM down the same runway, exit it by taking the third exit on their left and then use the parallel taxiway. Mais c’est trop tard. y Aeronave Boeing 747, matrícula N736PA de PANAM en el Aeropuerto de los Rodeos, Tenerife (Islas Canarias)." and "We are still taxiing down the runway, the Clipper 1736!" The KLM plane remained briefly airborne, but the impact had sheared off the outer left engine, caused significant amounts of shredded materials to be ingested by the inner left engine, and damaged the wings. Collision on Tenerife is many things: a detailed post-mortem of what, exactly, went wrong; an agonizing narrative of how hundreds of people managed to survive the terrible ordeal; and a striking lesson in what to do, and not do, in the event of a disaster. The plane immediately went into a stall, rolled sharply, and hit the ground approximately 150 m (500 ft) past the collision, sliding down the runway for a further 300 m (1,000 ft). She was therefore not on the KLM plane when the accident happened, and she would be the only survivor of those who flew from Amsterdam to Tenerife on Flight 4805. 27 mars 1977 - L'accident le plus dramatique de l'histoire de l'aviation. On hearing this, the KLM flight engineer expressed his concern about the Pan Am not being clear of the runway by asking the pilots in his own cockpit, "Is he not clear, that Pan American?" Corrections? The Pan Am's engines were still running for a few minutes after the accident despite first officer Bragg's intention to turn them off. (spanska) "A-102/1977 y A-103/1977 Accidente Ocurrido el 27 de Marzo de 1977 a las Aeronaves Boeing 747, Matrícula PH-BUF de K.L.M. [62], Cockpit procedures were also changed after the accident. [2][3] Resulting in 583 fatalities, this accident is the deadliest in aviation history. L’accident eut lieu il y a 40 ans, au milieu du calme après-midi de ce dimanche 27 mars 1977. Collision d’avions à Santa Cruz. About two months before the accident, he had conducted the Boeing 747 qualification check on the co-pilot of Flight 4805. Drifting clouds of different densities cause wildly varying visibilities, from unhindered at one moment to below the minimums the next. [12], Both flights had been routine until they approached the islands. Caractéristiques de l’accident; Date: 27 mars 1977: Phase (Le mot phase peut avoir plusieurs significations, il employé dans plusieurs domaines et principalement en physique :): Décollage (Le décollage est la phase transitoire pendant laquelle un aéronef passe de l'état statique - au sol - vers le vol. The Pan Am crew replied: "OK, will report when we're clear." [14], Air traffic instruction must not be acknowledged solely with a colloquial phrase such as "OK" or even "Roger" (which simply means the last transmission was received),[61] but with a readback of the key parts of the instruction, to show mutual understanding. The crowded airport had placed additional pressure on all parties, including the KLM cockpit crew, the Pan Am cockpit crew, and the controller; Sounds on the CVR suggested that during the accident the Spanish control tower crew had been listening to a. The other 61 passengers and crew aboard the Pan Am aircraft survived, including the captain, first officer, and flight engineer. In March 1977, two jumbo jets collided at Tenerife Airport killing 583 people. Clouds at 600 m (2,000 ft) above ground level at the nearby coast are at ground level at Los Rodeos. This was one of the first accident investigations to include a study into the contribution of "human factors". [4] By the time the KLM pilots saw the Pan Am aircraft, they were already traveling too fast to stop. The accident was investigated by Spain's Comisión de Investigación de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviación Civil (CIAIAC). [44] By March 30, a small plane shuttle service was approved, but large jets still could not land. The airport quickly became congested with parked airplanes blocking the only taxiway and forcing departing aircraft to taxi on the runway instead. The crew began the taxi and proceeded to identify the unmarked taxiways using an airport diagram as they reached them. Captain Grubbs applied full power to the throttles and made a sharp left turn towards the grass in an attempt to avoid the impending collision. The tower instructed the KLM to taxi down the entire length of the runway and then make a 180-degree turn to get into takeoff position. "Collision on Tenerife: The How and Why of the World's Worst Aviation Disaster," by Jon Ziomek (Post Hill Press, 2018). indicated that captain Grubbs and first officer Bragg had recognized the ambiguity (this message was not audible to the control tower or KLM crew due to simultaneous cross-communication); The Pan Am had taxied beyond the third exit. 1976 - L'Afrique du Sud retire ses troupes d'Angola. 27 mars 1977 : terrible collision à Tenerife. Immediately after lining up, the KLM captain advanced the throttles and the aircraft started to move forward. Schreuder had 17,031 flight hours, of which 543 hours were on the 747. The aircraft completed its 180-degree turn in relatively clear weather and lined up on Runway 30. The Spanish government installed a ground radar system at Tenerife North Airport following the accident.[14][65]. La catastrophe de Ténérife est le drame le plus meurtrier de toute l'histoire de l'aviation: le 27 mars 1977, deux appareils entrent en collision sur le tarmac. A few of the takeaways: Get out of your seat. In 1978, a second airport was opened on the island of Tenerife – the new Tenerife South Airport (TFS) – which now serves the majority of international tourist flights. [33], A simultaneous radio call from the Pan Am crew caused mutual interference on the radio frequency, which was audible in the KLM cockpit as a 3-second-long shrill sound (or heterodyne). The Pan Am crew's transmission was "We're still taxiing down the runway, the Clipper 1736!" "The magnitude of the accident speaks for itself, but what makes it particularly unforgettable is the startling set of ironies and coincidences that preceded it. 27, 1977. Hierarchical relations among crew members were played down, and greater emphasis was placed on team decision-making by mutual agreement. 27 mars 1977 : Une collision aérienne à Ténérife (Espagne, îles Canaries) entre deux Boeing 747, cause 583 morts. The C-130 transported all surviving and injured passengers from Tenerife to Las Palmas; many of the injured were taken from there to Air Force bases in the United States for further treatment. Le 27 mars 1977, deux Boeing 747 entrent en collision à Tenerife, sur l'aéroport de Los Rodeos, dans l'île de Tenerife aux Canaries, entraînant la mort de 583 personnes. More than four decades later, the crash remains the worst disaster in aviation history, killing 583 people, injuring … Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Either message, if heard in the KLM cockpit, would have alerted the crew to the situation and given them time to abort the takeoff attempt. The civil aviation authorities had therefore closed the airport temporarily after the explosion, and all incoming flights bound for Gran Canaria had been diverted to Los Rodeos, including the two Boeing 747 aircraft involved in the disaster. A Dutch national memorial and final resting place for the victims of the KLM plane is located in Amsterdam, at Westgaarde cemetery. Slaton was dispatched from Torrejon Air Base just outside of Madrid, Spain. Updates? The apparent hesitation of the flight engineer and the first officer to challenge Veldhuyzen van Zanten further. The ALPA study group concluded that the KLM crew did not realize that the transmission "Papa Alpha one seven three six, report when runway clear" was directed at the Pan Am, because this was the first and only time the Pan Am was referred to by that name. Tenerife airline disaster, runway collision of two Boeing 747 passenger airplanes in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, that killed more than 580 people. [8] Its cockpit crew consisted of Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten (age 50),[9] First Officer Klaas Meurs (42), and Flight Engineer Willem Schreuder (48). Most of the KLM passengers were Dutch; also on board were 4 Germans, 2 Austrians and 2 Americans. Deux Boeing 747, PanAm et KLM se t lescopent sur la piste de Tenerife faisant 575 morts, le plus lourd bilan de l'histoire de l'aviation. La catastrophe de Ténérife - 27 mars 1977. [11] His photograph was used for publicity materials such as magazine advertisements, including the inflight magazine on board PH-BUF. [10][38] KLM had suggested initially that Veldhuyzen van Zanten should help with the investigation, not realising that he was the KLM captain who had perished in the accident. The increased severity of the fire caused by the crash led ultimately to the deaths of all those on board. [6], The disaster had a lasting influence on the industry, highlighting in particular the vital importance of using standardized phraseology in radio communications. The disaster has been featured in many TV shows and documentaries. A study carried out by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) after the accident concluded that making the second 148-degree turn at the end of taxiway C-3 would have been "a practical impossibility. The airport was forced to accommodate a great number of large aircraft due to rerouting from the terrorist incident, resulting in disruption of the normal use of taxiways. This caused the KLM crew to miss the crucial latter portion of the tower's response. Meurs read the flight clearance back to the controller, completing the readback with the statement: "We are now at takeoff. "ready for departure"). The first crash investigators to arrive at Tenerife the day after the crash travelled there by way of a three-hour boat ride from Las Palmas.