TWO PLANES TRAGICALLY COLLIDES MID AIR CAUSING OVER 500 DEATHS

A tragic crash at a small airport in the island's north shook the Atlantic island of Tenerife on March 27. The crash is known as the deadliest aviation accident in history. KLM flight 4805, now known as Tenerife North, started speeding down the runway at Los Rodeos Airport, mistakenly thinking they had been given the all-clear to take off. They had no idea that Pan Am flight 1736 had not yet cleared the runway. A catastrophic accident that followed permanently altered the course of aviation history. Van Zanten sent the KLM rocketing down the runway and straight into the Pan Am plane, which hadn't finished taxiing off the runway after they mistakenly thought they had been given the all-clear to take off. It was already too late when the pilots of both aircraft realised how serious the situation was.

"Observe him! As they turned sharply and scrambled to clear the KLM's path, Pan Am pilot Victor Grubbs yelled, "Goddamn, that son of a b***h is coming." First Officer Robert Bragg responded, "Get off! Get off! Get off."

As the Pan Am attempted an early takeoff, the KLM aircraft would ultimately crash into its side. The Dutch aircraft would only be in the air for a short while before the impact of the crash caused it to stall and crash into the runway 500 feet (150 meters) down from the Pan Am. In 2016, Bragg recalled the aftermath in an interview with BBC Witness: "I noticed the top of the aeroplane was gone when I looked up for the fire control handles."

Additionally, fuel was carried by Flight 4805, which quickly caught fire and killed all 248 people. Robina van Lanschot was the only passenger to have disembarked from the aircraft after it had landed at Los Rodeos Airport. In the meantime, the collision had badly damaged the Pan Am. Upon impact, every person seated on the upper deck of the aircraft perished instantly. Fortunately, before the fuel tank exploded, 61 people, including the pilots, were able to escape the burning aircraft. Investigations further revealed that the crash was caused by bad weather combined with a misunderstanding between air traffic control and KLM. To reduce misunderstandings in the future, pilots and ground crews adopted standardized language as a result. The fact that neither plane was intended to stop in Tenerife at all may have been one of the collision's more terrifying aspects. Following a terrorist incident at their intended destination of Gran Canaria, the KLM and Pan Am flights were rerouted to Los Rodeos Airport. The separatist Canary Islands Independence Movement had earlier in the day planted a bomb in the island's airport terminal, which caused eight injuries when it exploded. All flights headed for Gran Canaria were forced to divert to Los Rodeos due to the possibility of a second explosion, and the tiny airport soon became overrun with planes. The Pan Am's pilots had even asked to continue circling their original destination until they were given the all-clear to land, but their request had been turned down.