Survivor remembers deadliest aviation disaster in Tenerife
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Today marks the 40th anniversary of the deadliest aviation disaster in history. It happened on the small Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa. Two jumbo jets, one American, collided in 1977. Jeff Glor spoke with a survivor of the crash and looked at how the factors that caused it are still relevant today.
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Crazy isn't it.
The world's worst air disaster happened.....on the ground.
Technically they all happen on the ground. Apart from midair collisions
YEAH p 28 I understand what your comment was saying!! SMH, sad world, when someone comments a DELIBERATE hurtful comment.
Duh they don't always crash on the ground,,they end up on the ground, unless your one of the statistics that burn into ashes, which still end up somewhere
Yeah I wondered how the one planes passengers all died on ground from roof getting ripped off,,I guess plane and force was too great. Sad anyways
Or into the ocean?
@@laragrove75 Initially beginning in the air. That was one that both began on the ground, w/one ending up in the air, that ended on the ground w/the other! The domino affects of causes that neither plane was involved in until...
I know I think I’m safe when we’re on the ground
I am also a survivor of this accident (see comment below). I was able to make contact with Joani because of this report and we correspond intermittently. I want to thank CBS News for finding and interviewing Joani and posting this report.
God bless you and all the survivors!!!!
My mom remembers this crash, she was in high school. I remember hearing a speech on the internet from this preacher who referenced surviving the crash in one of his sermons. He sounded pretty old and the sermon was from the 80s, so I assume he's long gone, but he was one of the only ones who survived from the back section of the plane and he talked about how he maintained faith even as he was certain that the inferno and smoke would overcome him. Do you happen to know who I'm talking about?
Hi David. I have your book, it's excellent.
Yes indeed. God bless all of you who survived.
God bless you, fellow survivors as well as the deceased.
miscommunication, fog, impatient pilot, fully fueled planes, it's as if this life is ruled by a sick destiny game..
Madiedo MD All that plus ETA Terrorists messing around with innocent people lives and never been apologetic about the whole incident.
A prime example of the Swiss cheese model
plane* not planes
Madiedo MD
also contributing is no radar and only two ATC people.
"Some remained alive"... You mean some survived.
What an odd way of putting it.
J P It was 40 years ago. Most of these people are dead or old
that's actually a better way of putting it. Indians talk like that too.
No, that's not what they mean, because many of those who remained alive *at the point in time they are talking about when they say that*, did NOT go on to survive the accident.
@@Maplelust I'm indian 😐
Because some people survived the impact but not the post-impact fire.
I remember this terrible tragedy clearly . I was 20 years old . I became a flight attendant myself . I flew for British Airways for almost 20 years . I retired on my 60 th Birthday three years ago . Loved my job . God Bless those poor souls who lost their lives . 🙏
I was 15 at the time, and I remember seeing the color photo spread in Time. I later became a pilot and flight instructor myself, but I've never forgotten this accident.
@@LesIieMeyers Thank you 🙏
Did terrorists do any time?
@@micheleh5269 No , Michele , it was not terrorist related . It was a mixture of poor communication, bad weather , long delays and a hot headed Captain 👩✈️! The aircrafts were diverted to Tenerife because of a bomb scare at their original airport Las Palmas . This should have never have happened . Who ever made the bomb scare was never found ! So sad . God bless , mat their souls test in peace .🙏🌺
Which aircrafts you worked with during your career?
Don't think I would ever fly again after surviving that crash
Allison Well in fairness, even though there were several reasons why this crash occurred, the actual airplanes had no fault whatsoever. So I think maybe that's why she feels safe enough to fly .
I was in at least 3 crash and alot of malfunction long distances buses and I still take them, I have no choice, I think she felts that way, I'll take buses and airplane till the teleportation become a real thing.
I don't know what I'd do. Statistically speaking, ones chances of being in two plane crashes are less than being in one.
She probably had to fly to get off that island lol
More people die in car crashes in 1 month than people died in this 40yo crash. You should be avoiding cars, not planes.
One young girl decided to not reboard the KLM flight because her boyfriend lived on the island. She was the only KLM passanger to survive. Can you imagine how she felt later that day? An interview with her would be very interesting.
that was debunked years ago after the air crash investogration episode was released... they got a lot of hate for not looking into it, that never happened, they ended up checking through the passenger list and she wasnt even on the plane, she had arrived a day earlier
Nope! Emma is actually right here. It was confirmed in 2014 or 2015 that she had completely lied about being on the plane in the first place and getting off on the island. She had actually done it for publicity.
yeah no.. theyre right.. it was for publicity and ACI had to release an apology for misinforming, so either that show didnt research or it wasnt an interview from 2018 and it was only UPLOADED to youtube in 2018
Laika I don't understand where you're pulling these facts from because they are right LOL
how are they supposed to give evidence if links are banned? I tried to give a source but the comment was deleted but basically she did lie yeah
A teacher from my high school was on the Pan Am flight she had just retired and a lot of people on the Pan Am flight where going on a Cruise including her and her husband . They where from Southern California They both died.
Super sad. I’m gonna appreciate today a bit more. Hope you’re doing ok.
@ETHAN POWELL the last name was Weller.
Never assume that your cleared for takeoff.
Panam was also in the wrong spot it’s both planes faults
Joe Tucker Well it was a triangle of wrong, the KLM took off with improper clearance and the Pan Am plane missed it's taxi way and had to take naother one. The control tower and pilots were also using bad communication.
Radio interference didn't help either. That's why they no longer use takeoff as an instruction unless it's exactly your turn and why they tell you to ask for clarification if you didn't understand the message. They mainly say HOLD AT X POINT and wait for instructions or something to that degree.
@@Hoshino_Channel Pan Am missing the intersection had nothing to do with it. They never called clear of runway which would have alerted the tower that it could give the KLM flight clearance fir takeoff.
@@idkidk759 thank you... everyone else seems to miss that part in the sequence. Yes Van Zanten should have waited but had the plane, fog, bomb, miscommunications all not been there... and one tiny part of that chain is the PanAm missing their exit.
If KLM didn’t fuel up, they mite have cleared Pan Am. When taking off weight is EVERYTHING
also from what i understand the fog wouldn't have been there had he not fueled up either from what i can tell it happened as he was filling up
Sorry, but from that standpoint it would NOT have made any difference. The NUMBER ONE issue here is the FACT that the Pan Am plane DID NOT have enough wing clearance to go around the KLM plane (the Pan Am pilots got out of their plane and measured this) and was thus were forced to wait until the KLM departed. Both planes were parked "in a line" behind the other one, with NO CLEARANCE to pass on either side. Even if the KLM plane hadn't fueled up, it would have still had to depart first, because of the clearance issue.
If KLM didn't fuel up, both planes would have taken off BEFORE the fog came in, hence the disaster would have been avoided.
Matthew Neathery Why would fueling cause fog?
Laika24102007 ummm...it was fog???
A pilot with no patience n big ego apparently.
The big ego theme is a possibility but based on nothing more than a stray comment or two by the captain. In other words, pure speculation.
Along with MANY other things.
@@cchris874 He took off with no confirmation from ATC. He thought he was the best at his job. That requires some big ego.
@@CityWhisperer This is a common myth that is rejected by professional air safety investigators. The captain thought he had the proper clearance. This is proven by
1) He began his take off upon hearing the words "you are cleared to the papa beacon"
2) If this were a deliberate breech of the rules, he would be committing professional suicide - huge risk his crew would report him, and face jail time.
3) It makes no sense for him to obsess about not breaking his duty time limit one minute, then casually break an even more important rule the next.
@@cchris874 He wrongly believed he had been given take off clearance when he received a departure clearance.
In fact the investigation concluded that the fundamental cause of the accident was that captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten attempted to take off without clearance. 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 and before the weather deteriorated further.
"I'm nervous."
"Oh don't worry, I'm one of the very few survivors of the deadliest plane crash in all of history, and look at me! I'm doing fine!"
"Thanks, I feel better now."
Flying still remains one of the safest and fastes ways to travel. When things go wrong however, they go catastrophically wrong. In this case, it's even more tragic since it happened on the ground..
This video reminds us how incredibly important the job of "on the ground" traffic control is. In the early 90s, I was on a flight from Vegas to Chicago that was accelerating down the runway when suddenly the pilot slammed on his brakes. After skidding and shuddering to a stop, the plane made a right turn. Pilot comes on the cabin PA and says: "Ladies and gentlemen, Sorry about that. We're going to try that again. Someone cut in front of us." At that time I was relatively new to plane travel. I looked to the guy next to me and said. "Is that normal!?" He said: "Nooo!" I'm sure things have changed since then, but God bless those ATC guys that have a critical role in keeping travelers safe.
Absolutely. The KLM pilot was arrogant and should never have gone. But ATC should also never have decided it was a good idea to have taxiing traffic directly against takeoff traffic, on a foggy day when they couldn’t see the planes.
I had that happen too, the going top speeds and about to take off and then the brake slam. Turned out a flock of birds committed suicide and we had to switch planes.
Someone cut in front of you?? Yikes. It's not a motorway. Makes you wonder how it can happen.
@@CathyKitson it recently happened again. In that case the crew seemed inattentive.
@@die_moehre5658 Where was that, Moehre? I didn't hear about it.
When we were Landing in Salt Lake we just about touched ground and then all of a sudden we were going back up in the air and the pilot came over and said that we were sharing the runway with somebody else and he basically saved us from crashing
touch & go lol
Oh my god
CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP
Anyone speak broken English?
Thank God for the time!!
And she still flies....
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.... she conquered!!
Airplanes are still the safest means of transportation
Dab Vitor yep and as technology advanced they will be even more safe
Faith over fear.
Wow! The fact that the lady who survived still flies is pretty bold.
Well it didnt happen in the air
It was either that or take boats and ships to get home or live the rest of her life in Tenerife.
Statistically she is less likely to get into an air disaster again, though she was statistically unlikely to in the first place. Thing is someone is always going to be the x% that are used in such numbers.
Well if you got in a car crash would you never go in a car again? You probably would. You have to get on with life.
Im from Tenerife..im 41 so i dont remember the crash by myself,but lot of people ,even my parents remember it...there still people who helped after the accident,that can't stand the smell of a barbacue,because of the smell of burn flesh...horrible.Thanks god its saver know and we even have another bigger airport here in Tenerife.
You couldnt remember the accident for a good reason....you werent born yet😅
I can't get enough about reading about this crash. I still can't believe something like that could happen
Take a look into Japan flight 123
[Nephew of Ida] I feel the same. I was just 13 at that time and live in East Germany near the Berlin Wall. We had
West German TV. The West Germans flow often to the Canarias but we in the East kept only dreaming of such a luck. But then this....
@@TheAdx1001 Why invoke JAL 123? That's a totally different beast. I'm not sure how one could compare two such totally differing scenarios with a straight face. The disaster at Tenerife had every element but one that *might* cause an airplane to crash (and almost never does), while the JAL flight had only catastrophic and unrecoverable mechanical single-point failure, that very same element that was the only one completely absent at Tenerife. You must have either mistaken PanAm 1736 for United Airlines 232, or you've been smoking some really unusual kind of super potent weed strain or hash product, or all of the above.
@@DrMackSplackem they are absolutely very different circumstances the comparison I was trying to make is how so many little small things can add up to such a large loss of human life
@@TheAdx1001 I Agree, but that only holds true at Tenerife. Maybe the lesson should be that chains of disaster can be very long, or single-point.
My God, this accident was so avoidable, so many people died because of a mistake and so many freak coincidences. May the ones who perished rest in Peace
Many mistakes. ATC was unclear, Pan Am pilot got lost and missed his exit from the runway, KLM mistook his instruction as clearance to go.
Idk but im seriously obsessed with airplanes these days, especially with airplane accidents
Have you discovered The Flight Channel? Excellent recreations!
@@MoogieB yep. i see videos from all seasons there
Don't fill your mind with pictures of plane accidents. It will only make you afraid. And it won't prevent one either. Just read Psalms 91
It's heartbreaking to know how these folk died. That pilot was far too experienced to think he knows better in such a situation.
Inexperienced
@@traceyedwards5128 Nope. Amber was right the first time. The KLM pilot was far too experienced to do something so stupid. Unfortunately, he'd reached such a high level within KLM that his experience had become arrogance. He was frustrated at the diversion and impatient at the delay and adopted an attitude that he was going no matter what, and that it was up to ATC and PANAM to sort themselves out to accommodate him. Van Zanten had become complacent and unfortunately his crew were too timid of him to question his decision to take off.
ALWAYS REMEMBER - Every day . . . is a blessing ! ⛪
This disaster still sends shivers down my spine. My heart goes out to everyone involved on that tragic day
What air disaster wouldn't?
@@generalyellor2187 Probable a crash where everyone survives by some miracle.
One thing they don’t talk about it’s the dutch governments fault, ridiculous labor laws, van zantan had to be back within a certain time frame or lose his license, that’s why while waiting refueled his plane, and that’s when the fog rolled in, had those ridiculous government rules not been in place he would have not refueled and everything would have been fine.
@Grassy Sands no they would not, and nobody would have ever known
Hello,greetings from Tenerife,some shortcomings in this video:the big photo behind the journalist doesn´t belong to the 1977 crash,it belongs to a crash in 1972 involving a Convair CV-990 Coronado and the graphics reenacting the accident doesn´t belong to the airport involved,it belongs to Tenerife South airport opened in 1978,one year later,moreover a very sad day in Tenerife´s history
US media, accuracy is not important.
Thanks for the info from Tenerife!
Matic: 'not important'? are you being protective? I would say 'not relevant'.
I remember the old airport at Tenerife. The runway ended with a cliff drop off! I flew into that airport just a few months before this accident, when I was a little girl.
zog zog,
I think Matic is just being a smart arse.
This happened 4 days before my 10th birthday. I recall the news reports and front page headline in the newspaper as if it happened yesterday. I found it horrifying then, and no less so today at 53 years old.
I was born the day this happened and now I’m an Airline Captain in the UK 🇬🇧🤓 I don’t usually tell my colleagues this truth incase they are superstitious 😆
"cockpit culture" was a major factor. Since then it has changed.
What do you mean by cockpit culture? Do you mean that pilots back in the day had way more freedom to make decisions on their own?
@@TheRipperxX9 Different airlines have different "cockpit culture". But what I was referring to (and I should have been more specific) is that the "culture" at KLM at that time was that you DON'T question the pilot...or if you do, you do it very, VERY mildly. The co pilot SHOULD have said to the pilot (when it became obvious that the pilot was going to take off) "I believe there might be a plane on the runway and you HAVE to stop . That would have taken guts. But that's what should have happened.
Crew Resource Management. Led to the loss of AF447
I was coming down the steps of my flight to Tenerife when the collision took place. You can’t realise the panic the airport went into.
It was very unnerving when I returned home 2 weeks later. All the burnt out wreckage was still lining the runway.
My father was going to work at the MiamiFort power station near the Ohio/ Indiana / Ky border one night in late 60s and saw that something was going on in the woods that were usually quiet, there was a fire and people around . Some guy came running out of the woods and said an airplane had crashed up the hill . Dad knew that the Greater Cincinnati airport was close by so he thought it may be a big airliner , which it was . It was a TWA flight that hit the ground after miscalculating it's altitude on approach to the runway. There were about a dozen survivors but many more than that did not survive. He helped as much as he could til the emergency crews took over the situation. Dad had been in World War 2 and saw the aftermath of Nagasaki but this still shocked him .
you mean twa flight 128?
It's crazy the repercussions of a bomb threat had. The butterfly effect showed its true colors
This isn't very much about the survivors ...
it's mostly just some crazy bald guy talking about his book.
Of course not. The morning shows always try to sell something whether its a movie or some schmucks books profiting off of the deaths of hundreds of people. The morning shows are garbage.
I am a survivor and wrote a book a book about my experience titled "Never Wait for the Fire Truck" by David Yeager Alexander.
i m burn at 28/11/77
south morrocco
without family.
i hear crays and ....not dream
As a flight attendant I’ve been honored to have worked with the infamous and legendary Dorothy Kelly. Humble, gracious, professional, courteous, elegant… there aren’t enough words to describe her. A true heroic legend. That’s the word for her: Legend.
Wow! That is so cool that you served with her. I did not see her in Tenerife as she was admitted to Candelario Hospital and I was among the walking survivors who were taken to Hotel Mancy.
Why was she infamous?
Who is Dorothy Kelly
@@ov7spears She was an amazing flight attendant that saved the pilots during that disaster. Thank you for asking about her.
@@di-jt6jp oh okay, good to know! because I google that name and found an actress from the silent movies days. Is this Dorothy still alive?
my grandfather is a surivor
Congo
KLM captain was a very stubborn person. He didn't wait for the "ok" from the tower. I lived only 2 miles from the graveyard and i s saw all the trucks with the coffins passing my room at night,before all those boddy(parts) in the coffins where put on the graveyard as a memorial. I was 17 then,and went to that ceremonie to see all the namens at the coffins. It was terrible to see also a friend of my dad and that man lost his whole family. Wife and 3 kids. 2 years later at October 1st 1979 i started to work for KLM groundservice till 1995. I was loadmaster in the last 8 years and it was hard working,but intresting to have control of widebody airplanes,also the 747. I was very aware of what happend that sad terrible moment at Tenerife everytime i worked at a 747... i'll never forgot it. R.I.P 🙏my prayers goes out to all families of the victims.
This is really sad because 583 people died that day on March 27th 1977 and only 61 people survived the crash
KLM co-pilot understood what was up, but the pilot (pictured in the advertisement) ignored.
Ironic that KLM’s spokesman and poster boy on safety happened to be the very same person/pilot who caused this disaster. Even more ironic that KLM ordered this pilot be the one to head up their investigation......until they realized HE was the one who caused it! Impatience and ego killed all of those people.
The dangers of this to happen again are still there to this day followed up with the safety to airlines since the 70s is immeasurable. News does this all the flipping time
Yes, it was ridiclous to present the story that way
I was 12 years old when this accident happened and I consider it to be a shocking disaster that will never be forgotten. I have always hated a certain term of speech in my adulthood and it is this .... “It goes without saying”. Nothing should ever go without saying, if it needs saying then say it. If in doubt check it. The accident was totally avoidable despite the adverse conditions on the day.
Another sad thing, the PanAm plane was the first 747-100 produced for commercial traffic. The Clipper Victor.
First 747 and first wide-body passenger aircraft in service, only to be destroyed in the deadliest crash in aviation history... N736PA is truly one for the history books.
After this video was uploaded, Feathers moved to Florida. She is a receptionist for a newspaper company in Eastern Florida, and now lives in my home-county!
3:57 - I remember this double-page KLM magazine advertisement with Capt. van Zanten prominently pictured. As I recall, it was in print in a national American magazine at the time of the crash.
It was also in the "Holland Herald" the in-flight magazine of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. I was on a KLM 747 to Amsterdam the day of the crash.
@@kelleyhelms3826 I'd love to see that issue of the magazine. I bet they're very hard to find today
There’s so many things going on
Whenever I board a plane I only think of one thing oh no we r going to crash today we r going to die but after some hours we land safely then I'm like nvm.. Then when I board a boat or ship I'm like oh no we r gonna sink after deboarding I'm like nvm
You must be a joy to travel with!
@@CathyKitson i work the same
Dude at the end saying radio frequencies happen & they don’t hear…wasn’t that addressed specifically due to this disaster?
Rest in peace to all the passengers that died and condolences to they’re loved ones and families 💐
I learned about this, today, on the 41st anniversary, another strange coincidence. Here from Breaking Bad.
I went from watching a video about The Sims 2 watching videos about the first commercial jumbo jet and one of the commenters mentioned this tragedy so I had to look it up. The crazy part about it is he commented about the accident two years ago
Same
After this accident, a new airport was built at sea level which is much safer. It's worth reading up on the events that caused this tragedy. Bomb scare at Gran Canaria was the reason the 2 747's were there on this inadequate airfield. For some reason, the KLM captain decided to fully refuel his aircraft much to the annoyance of the Pan Am captain. He even thought about going round the KLM plane and sent his first officer out to see if it could be done but it couldn't. So everybody was irritated by events and the delays.
Fuel is and was extremely cheap on Tenerife.
RIP to Captain Bragg..
A lasting effect of this crash is that the FAA standardized the language of a takeoff clearance so that the word "takeoff" is the last word. For example "Flight 10: runway 23, cleared for takeoff."
747-400 didn't exist when this happened.... in case any other av geeks noticed
it was a 100 and a 200
This one was a 200
There used to be a cave at the airport (as of 20yr ago) with a statue of the blessed Mary in it. I was told it was in remembrance of this devastating event.
In nearly all of my posts below I mis-spoke and referred to the Flight Engineer as the Navigator, my apologies as I didn't fact check my memory of the second crew member I nursed against other publications before posting.
TENERIFE IS NOT a small Island.. is bigger than most people think (about 1million people live there & the longest highway is about 60 miles long from north to south..)
Also.. since 2000s visitors from USA stop coming to Canary Islands due to change of currency Pezeta to EUR ..as € is higher than $
So now is full of people from UK & Germany.. i guess is ok for them
I looked this incident up after my chemistry teacher ,Mr. White , mentioned it a school assembly .
Alfred, that is not even funny.
If a pilot sends a message on the same frequency at the same time as the controller and you don't get a response, you DON'T just assume it's okay to do something. Both sides must wait until they get a confirmation. Geez, how hard is that?
None of them heard the interference I think.
The C3 turn in this video is incorrect, it was a 145 degree turn
I think it’s crazy to think about the fact that they were at that airport to be “safe” from alleged terrorism.
And yet almost 600 people lost their lives.. sad
My heart breaks terribly to even think of possibly the joy those terrorist must have felt to have cause that also! SMH...Makes me 🤔if any of their loved ones reached their demise in that! w/o calling out to their Allah!🤔 May God continue to bless all that survived & may all others R.I.P.!
It changed the rules for take off, and after this both pilots have to agree it's a go. The airport isn't in use anymore on Tenerife btw, just for small airplanes.
"What's the most alarming thing they haven't fixed" The fact pilots and ATCs seem to be in some sort of bazar competition to see who can gabble important information as quickly and as incoherently as possible. I've never understood this obsession.
I took care of several survivors from this crash, including the Pilot and Navigator or maybe Flight Engineer while stationed at Fort Dix. This morning while watching Lucky Dog a woman named Jean adopted Minnie, a rescue Maltese mix, and Jean said she was a survivor of such a crash at age 13 (but didn't say it was this one, but her age looks correct)...what she described in general terms was this horrific event and I wish I knew if I was her nurse as she looks familiar. As the midnight nurse at Walson Army Hospital mobilized to receive survivors I had no idea how this event would affect me to this day, so I can only imagine what the physical survivors have had to overcome, many of whom were burned severely. I held both the Cpt and Nav in my arms many a night as they re-lived this crash over and over and over, in despair and fear that it was their fault and reliving how the stewardesses rescued them with no time to spare. Although it wasn't a military event, many survivors were given the option of recovering at Fort Dix to avoid the press. My heart goes out to all of the survivors because I myself can rarely force myself to get on an airplane even all this time later and I wasn't physically there except by the weeks of nightly revisiting to help the survivors in my care try to rest and heal. My thoughts and prayers to all survivors.
Bless you, Margaret, for caring for these people. I am a survivor of this accident and recently released a book about my experience. It's titled "Never Wait for the Fire Truck" by David Yeager Alexander and is available on Amazon. I was able to find and speak with our co-pilot Bob Bragg in 2014 and included that in my book. I was in the subgroup of14 walking survivors.
I am the Granddaughter of Captain Victor Grubbs and a nurse. I sincerely appreciate you caring for him! I also appreciate commenting that he and Captain Bragg were terrified it was their fault.
@@davidalexander7742 I will look for that book…it seems like a wonderful way to put things down for historical and personal reasons.
@@mC02297 Hi, Mandy, thank you for posting. Those gentlemen and all of the others are in my thoughts and prayers more often than anyone could imagine, especially after all these years. I am happy that my words meant something to you because those guys were truly important to me.
This is how you end up when you confuse whether you’re in a simulation or in real life piloting a plane full of hundreds of people in it.
How would this 'confusion' ever occur in a pilot?
The pilot was the main fault of the accident. He did not recieve takeoff clearance, and despite being told so by the rest of his crew he forced them to continue the takeoff.
Never been safer BUT...
Pan am First Officer:Robert brag
The most alarming thing is Captain Arrogance. The 2 pilots left and right needs to be equal.
once, just once I would like to hear an air traffic controller say, "everyone stop right where you are"
If you're in the fog, and you can't See anything, it is wiser and more courageous to make everyone stop until you know where they are.There is no schedule that is so important that it is worth dying for.I'm sure that has happened, or a variation of it. I like to see accidents that were averted by intelligent ground control and air traffic control.If we are honoring the people who died, it would be great to take a few minutes and honor those who keep people from dying every day.
Repeated error leads to disaster. Both the pilot and the tower had committed to the errors and mediocracy level work and they always got away mocking around, until one day this crash happened,,
Most of the Pam Am survivors were seated in first class (no such thing as business class back then), plus the pilots and flight crew in first class. Some media reports touted the benefits of flying first class, which I thought was darned sad.
Then in 1985, and L1011 Tri-Star cashed in Dallas, with the two dozen survivors seated in the rear of the plane. Once again, certain media reports touted the benefits of being seated on row 42 or 43.
Just mentioned this event at a safety training meeting. Nobody knew what I was talking about. Reason? I was the only one there alive in 1977. The millennials with whom I work passed off my description of the crash as too far in the past to be relevant.
Marie Katherine This accident is still relevant in the flying business.
That is arrogant of those millennials.
I was just 6 years old when this accident happened, so I never remembered it. In fact, I don't think I've heard about it until recently while watching some aircraft crash investigation videos.
The crash is a perfect example of the “Error Chain” and if you remove one bad decision out of the multiple bad decisions made, the accident would almost never happen. Tell the millennials that arrogance and or ignorance is never a good part of the decision making process.
As a former flight instructor and one who remembers the accident from his teenage years, I can affirm that it's still very relevant. Can't believe the youngsters thought otherwise. I guess every generation thinks the previous one walked with dinosaurs and possesses only obsolete knowledge.
Probably would have been safer to land at the airport with the terrorist incident..
I have watched the tragic crash on many occasions. Listened to the ATC and seen the weather issue. Yes this is regarded as the most tragic crash in "modern" aviation because of the number of souls lost, but folks lets quit the blaming, the investigations were done and we have to accept the results. Even 1 soul lost in an aeroplane crash is tragic for that soul's family and friends. Lets take the crash as a lesson to all involved in aviation travel. Quit blaming and may those lost RIP and to the griefing families our sincere condolences from everyone the world over.
True but it's hard not to feel emotion when hearing about this case. People are venting, which is what the comment section is for. Overall, nothing can be done about it, and we learn to accept that by continuing with our lives.
i flew to tenerife a few months ago AND DECIDED TO WATCH THE VIDEO MY ANXIETY HATED ME
The real big thing that would have saved this tragedy is if the air traffic control message would have gotten through to the pilot or pilots. I read up on this. After the pilot thought he had clearance and then the atc said ok they also radioed something else I think along the lines of stand by for take off or something. They never heard that because something obviously didn’t work right. It amazes me that with all the technology the radio communication is so choppy and hard to hear. These are life and death situations should be a lot more clear. All the pilots heard was I think a beep or something like that
There was a whole string of problems that, if even one was avoided, would have changed everything.
I lost an aunt and uncle . Never will I forget them.
I was 27 years old and my boyfriend came home so alarmed and annoyed about the accident! He was taking flying classes himself in a small flying school in Fort Worth, Texas, he was from 🇪🇸 Spain! Wooo, those memories are so detrimental emotionally!!😔
For anyone who's interested in the details of the accident without the overdramatization of mainstream TV networks, I highly recommend the video entitled "What REALLY Caused the Tenerife Airport Disaster?! The WORST Aviation Accident in History" on the Mentour Pilot channel on YT.
Since that broadcast, Charley Rose has crashed too, in a sense.
2020, what is this congestion you talk about
From what I have heard, it was a mis-communication between the tower and the KLM crew. I believe it's also true that since that accident, the two word phrase "take-off" is never, ever used over the radio unless used in the context of a clearance or permission to do just that. I think the tower said to the KLM crew, "Hold for take-off" as the Pan Am jet was taxiing and the KLM crew thought it was "cleared for take-off".
Please. They had the VC. Van zanten was just impatient simple as that. All those people died cause VZ didnt want to wait another minute
Radio interference cut off the messages so only part of it was heard. Neither tower nor the KLM could perfectly hear each other due to teledymes.
@@dml5583
That's not the reason so get your head out of your behind and actually learn the entire story.
@@blue9multimediagroup also the idiots in the tower were listening to a soccer game.
the real takeaway from this as they said in the vid is that these big crashes are almost a thing of the past at least for flights in the US. Remember the era 60s thru 90s, lots of crashes. Last 20 years it really quieted down.
Yep, it's quietened down a lot in America and western Europe. No crashes in the UK since 1989. Last accidental crash I remember in western Europe was probably the Air France concorde in 2000. Biggest risk these days is from lunatics that crash planes on purpose. Still a lot of plane crashes in Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa usually due to old planes and poor maintenance
@@billkent6037 there was a british airways crash in January 2008, just before landing at heathrow, but thankfully no fatalities.
@@lemonspica Yes, I vaguely remember it but Kegworth 89 was the last commercial passenger flight with fatalities. Kegworth wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the pilots shutting down the wrong engine! 😄
@@billkent6037 there was an Spanair crash in Madrid in 2009. It happened right after take off. Pilots mistake, caused by stress from the fact that take off had been delayed and the airline was facing a staff cut. Furthermore, an electrical failure didn’t warn the pilots about their flaps not being in position at the moment of speeding down the runway. More than a hundred people died. It was shocking news here in Spain.
Whilst the Captain and being the leading authority on the training of many pilots he made a fundamental error by taking off without authorisation from air traffic control and with the aircraft having a full fuselage he decided to proceed anyway.With no disrespect to his memory,on this occasion there are only losers and no winner's!💔
I think KLM holding him in such high regard led him to make his own decision to take off instead of having the control tower give him that direction, maybe just this one time. However, that decision costed his and all of the passenger's lives.
There were 50 children on board the KLM. Sad¡ the flight of the KLM was delayed for a couple of minutes because one of the children got lost in the airport. After the kid was found they took off.
good grief 😔
Patience is a virtue. So sad. Wow.
KLM pilot may have been too confident by the looks of it
What has 'confidence' got to do with the fact that the KLM aircraft was never given a takeoff clearance?
@@sailorman8668 This has nothing to do with confidence but the tower didn't even know that the 2nd plane hadn't gone off the runway yet.
All of you are obsessed on blaming it all on Van zenten without knowing the picture.
I've not seen one comment blaming the terorrist, not one comment about the fog and not one comment about the miscommunication on the Control towers end.
@@aaeve5676 There were many contributing factors involved in why this disaster occurred.
However, knowing that the KLM pilot never had a takeoff clearance, surely you can see why so much blame is put on him?
@@sailorman8668 Yeah I can,
Remember that there was another air disaster in Tenerife that happened three years later in 1980, when a Dan Air plane went into a mountain killing almost 200 on board.
I wasn't aware of that one. I believe its quite a mountainous region in places?
This Dan Air flight from Manchester UK also involved miscommunications and lack of clarification from the same control tower. The plane was in a landing pattern awaiting clearance to land. Weather conditions were again poor with dense fog. It took a wrong turn following an arguably unclear instruction from the ATC or control tower and hit the mountain head on. It was too late to react to the ground proximity warning and make any adjustments. Everyone on board died. Following this incident the new airport in the South of Tenerife was commissioned.
I was one the 747 Captains at the time, studying this horrific crash. Sadly "frequency blockage," (when two or more radios key the Mic at the same time, blocking each other) is still with us. There are some improvements on modern aircraft addressing this issue, but not enough.
The other major contributing factor was human factor issue, known in aviation as "get hometitus" also still with us!
Van Zanten is the only one responsible. He never received clearance to roll
... why is they a 747-400...
Actually it's a 747-206B and a 747-121
3:57 that KLM 742 is so good looking
@madesh gandra dude, you can't blame all of this on one man.
*If it wasn't for the terrorists the planes wouldn't have been rerouted.
*If it wasn't for the fog they could've seen each other.
*If it wasn't for dutch policy he wouldn't have had the need to take off immedietly.
*If it wasn't for faulty radio he would've heard the other plane being on the runway.
*If it wasn't for miscommunication the control tower could've told them that the other plane was still taxiing.
I remember this accident. Hopefully another accident of this magnitude does not happen again.
Japan airline flt 123 532 poeple parrished
As always, with the news regarding aviation accidents, the reporter gets the story mostly wrong. There is so much more to the accident and what happened, then his total misleading comment at the end. Totally typical and expected!!
Ikr, they put most of the blame on Van Zenten even though every little thing piled up for the perfect storm.
It always infuriates me how people say 'safest form of transport'. In practice, because of incompetence and malice and the nature of the transport, it's barely safer on average than boat journies and is slightly less safe than rail journies. And, unlike those, there's often no chance of escape. Gravity pulls us down - being in the air is a fundamentally unusual, fragile, state of being for a species that has no wings of its own. Not particularly pertinent in this case but it shows that mass loss generally accompanies serious airline incidents.
I've read quite a bit about the way they do the safety stats over the years, and yes I would partly agree with you that a lot of deception goes n in these comparisons. That said, when you fly today's top safe airlines, i.e. AA UA DL AC BA LH KL NH JL QF NZ EK EI CX Singapore, Southwest (yes even them) and a handful of others, you are going to have a hard time doing better than them. Excluding commuter/regional aircraft, combined these airlines have suffered only 2 fatal events since 2001. In the US alone there was but one fatality (the recent Southwest) out of some 100 million flights deployed. That's roughly one chance in 10 billion. Can you beat that on a boat, or on Amtrak? The rest of the world is a different matter to be sure.
Picnicl most crashes aren’t of the world’s top airlines. Airlines like American haven’t had an accident in years.
"Gravity pulls us down - being in the air is a fundamentally unusual, fragile, state of being for a species that has no wings of its own." Yes, well put. You're right - there's something about hurtling through the air in an aluminium tube that invites terror. I fly every few years and I hate it. It always terrifies me. I get zero comfort from "Statistically, it's the safest form of travel..."
@@reesemorgan2259 Learning abuot how the plane and flight work can be really helpful. Lift is the key part to learn.
We all know about this in the canary Islands..... Too sad to be true. I am surprised there were so many survivors....
Love Canarias and Love NY state!! My heart is divided in two places! Lots of love to all of you!
Not that Van Zanten thought he was clear. He just didnt care.
there's just no evidence for that.
@@cchris874 yes there is the voice recorder shows clearly he just wanted to go. He explained what happens if you fly past you allotted time and he wanted to go.
@@dml5583 Your comment states that the captain didn't care whether he had clearance. You're taking small fragments of prior conversation and making wild assumptions about them.
@@cchris874 he didnt care. His co pilot had to stop him advancing the throttles before he couldnt stop him anymore. I been on KLM many times but I'm not gonna make an excuse for him
@@dml5583 I'm not making an excuse for him either. Rather than being deliberate, he confused his airways clearance with take off clearance. The proof is the fact he commenced take only after he got the clearance.
Air traffic controllers don't say take off now to the pilot unless they mean for a flight to actually take off I think klm pilot just heard that word and thought it was time when it wasnt
No.. Thats not correct what you are saying..
KLM captain didnt think he was cleared to take off..
He decided to go ON HIS OWN.
Thats a big difference.
@@jonbonesmahomes7472 not true. Teledymes in the transmission omitted words so he only heard takeoff. If you look at the official report, you will see where the radio squealed due to too many people talking at once, and how only certain words were heard by not just KLM, but everyone.
Can’t believe Breaking bad brought me here. It’s a true statement to how Little-talked about this event is