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Tenerife crash
March 27th, 1977

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).

Tenerife in the worldCanary 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 Canary islandson 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.