Tenerife - page1- en
In the World's worst civil aviation disaster,
583 people were killed or mortally injured on March 27 when two Boeing 747 jumbo jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos
airport, Tenerife (in the Canary Islands).
Canary
islands are located in the Atlantic ocean, in
front of Africa,
between 27° and 29° north
latitude, and between 13° and 18° west longitude. They
are volcanic islands. Tenerife
is in the middle of the archipelago and is 81 km
long and 45
km wide.
The
PanAm Boeing 747-121 is on a charter passenger
flight from Los-Angeles to Las Palmas
for 8 hours. 396 people are onboard (including 16 crew members). The
captain
is quite
angry: he did not get the clearance to land on Las Palmas: a
bomb has exploded in the airport
2 hours ago, and the airport is closed for reparation. The
747 is requested to divert to Tenerife, 70 km
far from Las
Palmas. The Captain and the
passengers are
unhappy, but they don’t have the choice.
At
14h15 GMT, PanAm flight 1736 is on final approach
on
runway 30. It lands on Los Rodeos airport (Tenerife)
uneventfully, but
the
captain notices the traffic jams on the airport. A lot of aircraft,
including a 747-206B
from KLM, have already landed here following
the Las
Palmas airport closure. The small Tenerife airport is saturated.
The
PanAm 747 is requested to park at the fourth
place behind the KLM 747. This KLM aircraft is also a charter flight
(KLM
4805). It has landed 45 minutes ago, with 248 people onboard (including 14
crew members).
The Captain is nervous: it is forbidden for the crew to
exceed
their hours quotas; Dutch regulation is very strict. If he does not
take-off quickly, he and KLM could be in serious trouble.
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