Tenerife Airport Disaster

By Musa Amannepesov
 Opening
I. Introduction

i. The most horrific and deadliest airplane catastrophy happened in Tenerife Island at the Los Rodeos

airport. Ironically it happened on the ground. Two Boeings 747s collided on the runway.

ii. Questions that I will examine:

i. How did the Boeings collided on the flight line?

ii. What were the consequences of the crash?

iii. How it imapcted the air safety protocol?

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Context
I. During 1977 Boeing 747 was the biggest commercial

jetliner ever built. (Smith)

II. Right before the airplane crash the weather was clear and

nice; airplanes were in the runway when the weather was

foggy. (Smith)
(Purrr)
III. Both jetliners flew to Tenerife instead of Las Palmas,

island of Gran Canaria, on that day, because of a terrorist

attack there. (Campbell)

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 Context
i. Prior to Tenerife Airport disaster, deadliest airplane crash took place in March 3, 1974, the Turkish

Airlines Flight 981. Until then, the safety level of the air travelling were much higher. (Pande)

ii. Overall 346 victims, 0 survivors. (Pande)

iii. Cause: an incorrectly secured cargo door at the rear of the plane burst open and broke off .

(Pande)

iv. Location: Paris, Orly airport. (Pande)

I. Captain of the KLM and Pan America, the jetliners which collided, were two experienced professionals.

(B742)

i. The 50-year-old pilot of the KLM, flew over 11,700 hours over 6 years. (B742)

ii. The 56-year-old pilot of the Pan America, had accumulated 21,043 hours of flight. (B742)
 1-st
Cause
How did the airplanes collided on the flight way?

Misunderstanding, Bad Weather…

Tragedy

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 Supporting point #1
i. KLM 747 taxed up the main single runway and made 360 degree turn for the

flight. But Pan Am followed the KLM 747, by the command from the tower, it

taxied towards the KLM 747. (History.com)

ii. The KLM 747 was commanded to continue taxing, but the pilot misheard the

control tower and sped up for the flight. (History.com)

iii. Pan Am pilot couldn’t see the coming plane because of the foggy weather. The

pilot saw the KLM 747 and tried to get off from the runway, but it was too late. (Mr. Nostalgic)

(History.com)
Supporting point #1

i. KLM 747 hit the Pan Am from the side and both planes fired up. (History.com)

i. The planes were full of the fuel. (History.com)

ii. The survivors were only from the front side of the Pan Am plane. (History.com)

(SafetyCard)
 2-nd
Cause
What were the consequences of the crash?

The Deadliest airplane crash in human history…

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 Supporting point #2
I. More than 580 people died (Campbell)
i. Only Pan Am’s passengers and pilot survived (61
survivors) (Campbell)
ii. 248 people died from KLM jetliner (Campbell)
iii. 335 died in Pan Am plane (Campbell)
II. Damage to airport facilities. (Whiteley)
i. Insurance and legal claim estimates around 2.25billion
dollars. (Whiteley)
ii. That is approximately 9 billion dollars at 2017.
(Smith)
(Whiteley)

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Supporting point #2
I. Big number of fatalities(583). (Finlay)
I. Put an anit-record of deaths in airport. (Finlay)
II. The most deadliest airline disaster ever happened. (Finlay)

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(Cloudberg)
 “Get off! Get off! Get off!”
Last words of the Pan Am pilot
-Bob Bragg

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Source: (Smith)
 3 -rd

Cause
How it imapcted the air safety protocol?

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 Supporting point #3

I. English language the common working language for all international air traffic control interactions.

(Finlay)

i. Pilots have to use standardized English phrases when exchanging information between flights.

(Finlay)

II. New cockpit procedures implemented for the hierarchy of the authority in the cabin. (McCreary)

i. Instead of the captain, the whole crew in the cockpit will make a decision. (McCreary)
 Work Cited
Administration, Federal Aviation. “Lessons Learned.” FAA, 27 May 2022,
https://lessonslearned.faa.gov/ll_main.cfm?TabID=2&LLID=14&LLTypeID=2 Accessed: 27 May 2022.
“B742 / B741, Tenerife Canary Islands Spain, 1977.” SKYbrary Aviation Safety, 10 Nov. 2021,
https://skybrary.aero/accidents-and-incidents/b742-b741-tenerife-canary-islands-spain-1977 Accessed: 27 May 2022.
Campbell, Heather. Tenerife airline disaster.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 27 May 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/event/Tenerife-airline-disaster Accessed: 27 May 2022.
Cloudberg, Admiral. “Apocalypse on the Runway: Revisiting the Tenerife Airport Disaster.” Medium, 4 Jan. 2022,
www.admiralcloudberg.medium.com/apocalypse-on-the-runway-revisiting-the-tenerife-airport-disaster-1c8148cb8c1b. Accessed:
27 May 2022.
Finlay, Mark. “Tenerife Airport Disaster: How It Happened And What We Learned” Simple Flying, 4 Oct. 2020,
https://simpleflying.com/tenerife-disaster/ Accessed: 27 May 2022.
History.com Editors. “Jumbo jets collide at Canary Islands airport.” HISTORY, 24 Mar. 2021,
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jumbo-jets-collide-at-canary-islands-airport Accessed: 27 May 2022.
 Work Cited
 McCreary, John, Michael Pollard, Kenneth Stevenson, Marc B. Wilson. “Human Factors: Tenerife Revisited” National Transportation Library, 1998
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/13937 Accessed: 27 May 2022.

 Mr. Nostalgic. “Tenerife Airport Disaster” Wikipedia, 27 May 1977,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster#/media/File:Het_verongelukte_KLM-toestel_De_Rijn,_Bestanddeelnr_929-1005_-_cropped.jpg
Accessed: 27 May 2022.

 Pande, Pranjal. “Once The Deadliest Single-Plane Accident Ever: Turkish Airlines Flight 981” Simple Flying, 9 Feb. 2022,
https://simpleflying.com/tenerife-disaster/ Accessed: 27 May 2022.

 Purrr. “1977, News: Tenerife Airport Disaster.” Avengers in Time, 26 May 2012,

www.avengers-in-time.blogspot.com/2012/05/1977-news-tenerife-airport-disaster.html. Accessed: 27 May 2022.

 SafetyCard. “Tenerife-airport-disaster-crash-animation.gif” Wikimedia, 29 Mar. 2017,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tenerife-airport-disaster-crash-animation.gif Accessed: 27 May 2022..

 Smith, Patrick. “The True Story behind the Deadliest Air Disaster of All Time.” The Telegraph, 27 Mar. 2017,
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/tenerife-airport-disaster. Accessed: 27 May 2022.

 Whiteley, Simon. “Applying Causal Analysis based on STAMP (CAST) Accident Analysis” MIT, 30 Mar. 2017,
http://psas.scripts.mit.edu/home/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Simon-Whiteley_Applying-CAST-Runway-Incursion-Case-Study.pdf Accessed: 27 May 2022.
Thank you for listening

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