Thread by @OnDisasters

#OTD in 1977: Tenerife Disaster. KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, two B-747 Jumbos, collide on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (Canary Islands Spain). 583 perished: all 248 on the KLM and 335 on PAA, where 61 survived. It remains the deadliest crash in aviation history.

#thread AP footage of the crash aftermath, including images of the wreckage

#thread NY Times period news report nytimes.com/1977/03/28/arc…

#thread Evening news report on the accident by CBS, hosted by the renowned Walter Cronkite, dated May 28 1977.

#thread ASN Entry on KLM [PB-BUF]. It was named Rijn ("Rhine")
aviation-safety.net/database/recor…

#thread ASN Entry on the Pan Am [N736PA - “Clipper Victor”]. In January 1970 it became the first-ever B-747 to operate a commercial flight. Later the same year, it was also the first 747 to be hijacked, being diverted from US to Cuba.
aviation-safety.net/database/recor…

#thread BAAA ACRO Entry on the occurrence
baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-bo…

#thread ICAO Accident Report
baaa-acro.com/sites/default/…

#thread Accident Report (English translation of the original Spanish Enquiry)
lessonslearned.faa.gov/PanAm1736/Span…

#thread Original Accident Report (in Spanish, includes annexes)
mitma.es/organos-colegi…

#thread ALPA Report on the Human Factors. Makes an interesting read, especially a section which lists a long series of similar near misses that occurred previously project-tenerife.com/engels/PDF/alp…

#thread This ALPA report was sourced from the site “Project Tenerife”, which lists other important documents and info on the tragedy project-tenerife.com/engels/

#thread Crash was result of crew actions, namely KLM taking off without ATC clearance, along with factors such as weather, overlaid radio messages, stress and others. It was an instrumental event for the birth of CRM. FAA “Lessons Learned” entry lessonslearned.faa.gov/ll_main.cfm?Ta…

#thread FAA animation reconstructing the disaster for their “Lessons Learned” website

#thread A Discovery Channel 45-minute documentary on the accident, produced in 2006, including reenactments, animation and survivor interviews

#thread AFAIK these is the only known picture showing the KLM and Pan Am 747s in Los Rodeos before the collision. It was taken by a local photographer, likely just wanting to capture the huge amount of traffic diverting to Los Rodeos after the bombing in Gran Canaria airport.

#thread Another picture, now showing the KLM B-747 and a SATA DC-8 [HB-IDB] on the background, which had also diverted to Los Rodeos. Reportedly picture was taken 30 mins before the accident.

#thread Mayday – Air Crash Investigation Special episode on the occurrence, with a run time of 1h20ms, one of the best documentaries on the accident. It was first aired in 2007

#thread In 2017 Cineflix, producers for the Mayday – Air Crash Investigation series, produced a new episode on the accident, with the normal runtime of 40 mins. Excerpt here

#thread Seconds to Disaster episode on the occurrence. The way it shows the sequence of how the events unfolded provides a very good explanation for how the various errors led to the accident

#Thread Macarthur Job´s book “Air Disaster Vol.1” final chapter has one of the best round-ups I´ve seen on the occurrence amazon.com/Air-Disaster-V…

#OTD in 1977: Tenerife Disaster: KLM 4805 and Pan Am 1736, two B-747s, collide on the runway at Los Rodeos Canary Islands, Spain. 583 perished in the deadliest crash in aviation history. This date also marks the 4th birthday of this twitter account.

#Thread Sign of the times, a “simple” Youtube channel also provides a detailed explanation of how the tragedy unfolded. Here, Mentourpilot [@MenTourPilot] extended (and excellent) video analysis on the accident