This aviation disaster was, in fact, followed by another at the same airport just a few years later. For more on that, watch my video on the crash of Dan-Air Flight 1008: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HHVrqOC2g4g.html
"Fun" fact: One of the PAM AM survivors was Jack Ridout. A year later, he would cancel a flight to San Diego due to illness. That flight was PSA 182, which collided with a Cessna Plane mid air due to radio miscommunication and lack of vision. Everyone on board both planes were killed. Dude living a Final Destination in real life.
I think I would have given up flying after the Tenerife incident. Reminds me of a musician that survived the Costa Concordia sinking that had previously survived another cruise ship sinking.
Damn, I remember that one too. Didn’t that disaster also result in changes to flight path allowances where commercial and small private craft were concerned?
Captain van Zanten was actually KLM's premier pilot, he was a pilot instructor and was featured on promotional materials such as magazine ads (at 4:51). He was so experienced that when KLM heard of the disaster in Tenerife and that it involved a 747, they were going to send van Zanten to help with the investigation, before realising that he was the captain of the crashed plane. Also, it appeared that Robina van Landschot lived to her 60s and died last year.
Isn't the captain of the Pan Am plane still alive himself? Not entirely sure, but I definitely remember him in a documentary recounting the horrifying experience.
@@pierrebegley2746 I think the first officer of the Pan Am plane was interviewed in the Air Crash Investigation/Mayday episode a few years ago. I'm pretty sure he died sometime in the last couple of years.
It's so easy to forget the real consequences when you're impatient. This channel has changed my thought process from "Well I'm not supposed to do this but I'm in a hurry" to "Either I make this yellow light and get there two minutes faster, or I get into an accident that could seriously hurt someone." You've got to remind yourself of the real consequences, and WHY you're "not supposed" to do that. Because often it's to prevent injury and death.
I stopped at a yellow light with my bike and had the car driver behind me crash into me once. and he was not close behind me, he looked in his left rear mirror to switch lanes and just didn't see me. No big injuries or damages but still some hours wasted for insurance stuff, so on that occasion I did wish that i had skipped that yellow light
Excellent point. I mean I know tensions were very high that day for all involved. Passengers anxious to get to their destination, pilots and crew also wanting to get home. The KLM pilot was in a hush because he was approaching his 12 hour mark and if he delayed much longer he wouldn’t be able to fly back him that day and would have had to spent the night in the island and then fly back in the morning. He probably didn’t want to do that. That and the n passengers weren’t allowed to leave the plane because there was no more room in the airport. And it was one of those airy that was beyond anyone’s control. You can control the weather and you can’t control how long an investigation mild be after a bombing took place. It’s seemed the perfect storm for a disaster one way or another. My teacher knew someone on that PAN AM flight. They survived!
That’s what I’ve been taking away from this accident. It’s understandable the captain being concerned. It would cause major frustration and $$$ to not take off that day. It’s only after the accident where reality sinks in. Yes, the captain is to blame. I just don’t want to see him as an evil guy. I’m sure if given a second chance he would do thing differently and would be remorseful.
And to think the person who bombed the floral shop in a terrorist attack, achieved massive devastation without it being part of the ultimate plan. Eleven years later Pan Am would receive its final "coup de grace" with the terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland. Also, more devastating than originally planned, given the bomb was supposed to explode over the ocean, but due to a delay taking off, it detonated over land killing many on the ground, including an entire family of five.
And still today, most people when they hear the name Pan Am still remember flight 103. Just like how flight 800 came to define TWA in her last years alive. Such a shame.
@@adrielsebastian5216 Its sad and weird how that one bombing brought down pan am as an airline same could be said for the TWA800 accident, yet American airlines loses 3 aircraft in 1 year due to 9/11 and then one that crashed in queens yet they still lasted somehow but id never fly them
It’s a common misconception that the flight was delayed at takeoff. According to the transcript of the trial, the flight left Heathrow on time. Nowhere does the official report state the bomb was intended to go off over the ocean.
Tenerife is one of those Murphy's law situations and not attributable to a single cause. It was nearly unpredictable that 3 different hazardous factors to safe air travel happened all at the same time; terrorist attack, bad communication, bad weather
once the weather deteriorated to the point that the undermanned tower, with no ground radar, could no longer see the field they should have ceased operations. To continue to move aircraft and operate the field with those personnel in those conditions was grossly negligent. I used to be a commercial pilot and we called the FAA "The Tombstone Agency" because they never acted until someone died. I'm long out of flying...think/hope they're better now.
Ate least the airline industry really learns from these mistakes. Every accident is studied to the last detail, sometimes for years. New rules are put into place, hardware is adjusted, pilots train for multiple crises scenarios. The results are great: if we had today the rate of fatal airline accidents there was in the 80s, with the huge growth in flights, there would be weekly accidents.
My absolute favorite thing about these videos is how respectful you are- not only do you cover the tragedy in bare facts, without shock appeal or dramatic reveals, but you also cover the beneficial changes that took place afterwards. It is an important thing to remember that most of the time, when something terrible happens, changes take place in the hopes of preventing it from happening again. If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Thank you.
Yes this is the exact kind of reporting style that we need more of. I've seen channels which cover disasters in a very sensationalized way, almost making light of things and making fun of the situations. That's so the opposite of what needs to happen. It's incredibly disrespectful.
@@R2Bl3nd Or the crime channels (mostly run by girls) where the thumbnails are just the youtuber with a blank look on their face and the person/case it's actually about shoved off to the side.
@@willfanofmanyii3751 anna solves (who unsurprising runs a drama channel 'Anna oop") comes to mind, she seems to be a young teenage girl looking for views, subscribers, and money tbh
Agreed. While it is impossible to avoid all bias, and the subject itself will make sensationalism impossible to *entirely* avoid, this channel is absolutely at the forefront of RU-vid on treating them with respect and factual rigor.
Plus, he also will list all of the victims and their lives before the incidents (assuming there aren’t a ton of victims because that would take a whole new video to list everyone’s biography). It’s nice to see a crime documentary humanize victims rather than hyping up the killer (although everything covered on this channel is usually the fault of an entire company rather than a single killer).
The KLM pilot was the chief training pilot for the airline and he was just coming back from several months without flying. They partially associated his lack of effective ATC communication with being used to simulator flying which back then didn’t take into account ATC comms. Also because he was the most senior chief pilot at KLM, the airline originally tried to get in contact with the KLM pilot to take part in the investigation without immediately realizing that he was the pilot in the incident.
The whole disaster was one of those "perfect storm" situations. If any one contributing factor had been removed, it's quite likely it would never have happened, or would have significantly lessened the scale of the event. I can't imagine the "survivor's guilt" that lass from the KLM flight felt. She waved goodbye to her friends (who were going to Grand Canaria) and went home, and her friends all died. How awful.
If the bomb attack didn't happen, that disaster wouldn't happen at all. The terrorists - at the time of the disaster succeeded what they've wanted; albeit on the other way around.
If there'd been no terrorist bomb, OR if that small airport hadn't been chosen for diversions, OR if the KLM plane wouldn't have just been filled with gas, OR if the KLM pilot hadn't been stressed and concerned about hours limits, OR if fog hadn't rolled in, OR had it not been a Sunday with a skeleton crew, OR had the KLM pilot not used a colloquial phrase, OR if his mic hasn't cut out as he spoke, OR if his crew would have been willing to question him, OR if the Pan Am plane had not missed the third turnoff, or if the timing had been just moments different, this tragedy would not have happened. In fact, such tragedies probably do NOT happen countless times each day; the statistical odds against it are staggering.
@@thebabyhumanist1964 based on another video I watched, razor-close airline disaster calls happen maybe a couple times a year or less, then more medium-danger situations or so in the double-digits per year.
That is called the “Swiss cheese effect” and it applies to basically all major disasters. It’s almost always a chain of non-ideal variables aligning perfectly to cause the storm and if any of the variable was changed, the disaster probably would not occur.
Oooh, this is a grisly one. I still can't believe the guy on all the KLM marketing material got everyone killed. It's like if Smoky the Bear went around with a flamethrower.
@@andrewjvaughan I remember distinctly seeing a parody of that poster by the people who sprayed Agent Orange in Nam, it said "only you can prevent a forest!"
That’s a mind-boggling number of people to die in the matter of a split second. The captain of that KLM flight rushed all those people to their deaths. Tragic.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The Hood? Look, I can come up with a dozen situations where 10x as many people died in a matter of a split second. Not so "mind-boggling."
@@princeofcupspoc9073 for an air disaster, it was. No airplane could carry 1300 people let alone 70-80k. The worst aviation disaster in history, remember? Context matters.
You forgot to mention that Pan Am could have started earlier if not for van Zandem' decision to refuel at Los Rodeos. And not a mere quantity, but whole 52 tonnes of fuel. Not only it caused more delays, but also made it impossible to fly over Pan Am at the critical moment - because the plane was too heavy to do that.
What I don’t get is why Van Zanten didn’t refuel while they were waiting. Sure there was no telling how long the wait would be and if it was just a short wait he’d probably still be refueling and there would be a delay but perhaps not enough of one that the fog would’ve settled.
@@Boundwithflame23 I think it's implied but from what I've read the plane was stuck in its spot due to its size etc. They couldn't refuel as they couldn't reach it
@@Boundwithflame23 he did refuel while they were waiting at tenerife, and that was exactly the problem. Refueling a 747 is not like refueling a car, where you can stop immediately if you change your mind. He requested a specific amount of fuel from the ground crews, so he was stuck until he received that fuel, even though halfway through he was cleared to start engines and get moving. Also, the planes were so tightly packed on the apron that the panam plane did not have the space to maneuver around the klm while he refueled and jump the queue. So now 2+ planes are stuck because one of them is refueling.
The order to refuel was a puzzling choice to make. They were only going to be flying 20 minutes over to another airport. They would have been very heavy to land. Most pilots are trained to land with nearly empty fuel tanks because it is easier. Planes are only loaded with enough fuel to complete their scheduled flight and not much extra. The decision to refuel would have been against operating procedure.
A few weeks ago I was on a flight that was delayed three hours due to mechanical issues. I admit that I was thinking “Come on, just get this plane TF in the air already!” After seeing this I will never think that way again.
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's edition of "Feeling weird at being excited because Fascinating Horror uploaded a detailed analysis of a horrible tragedy".
@@mrdth1012 first time I’ve actually ever hear the name pronounced! Even when I’m reading about this tragedy my eyes jump over the KLM captains name as Captain Van …. Yeah, him!
I remember when this happened. Lots of magazines had pictures of passengers with partially burnt clothing laying on the grass. This was a time when magazines could show that kind of stuff. Scared me as a kid.
I've seen some of the pictures they put on mags and newspapers after the Los Alfaques disaster and I believe you. That sort of stuff doesn't faze *me* much, but geez, who in their right mind thought that was appropriate for general viewing? Yeah, it was the 70s, but still...
@@LyralioRC I saw the pictures of Los Alfaques accidentially when I was very young. My mother had her magazine laying on the table and open. Now I'm 59 and these pics are in my mind so that I can recall every gruesome detail of them until today including the burnt bodies.
But here's the rub. People today are so insulted from reality that it almost actually _encourages_ complacency. If people saw the results of drinking and driving, not wearing seatbelts, not having smoke alarms, etc, maybe they'd think twice. All media now hide reality and people are lulled into thinking 'oh well, it's not that bad', and then when something goes wrong they panic & cannot act because the reality of the situation has now smacked them right in the face & they are unprepared for it. I'm not advocating showing deliberately gruesome images, but show the lines of bodies under tarpaulins. Show survivors sat in shock waiting for transport. But no, they won't, because someone somewhere will cry that it 'upset' or 'offended' them. I despair of a world where protecting someone's fragile feefees is more important than making them face reality.
As a former Air Traffic Controller, I was always strict on making sure aircraft read back instructions clearly, as to not have any confusion for all onboard the radio frequency. Such an event like this should not have happened, and is anyone that works in Aviation's worst nightmare.
I also find it curious that they would allow two aircraft to occupy a runway at the same time, one in position and the other back taxiing. I wouldn't know what the rules would be about that and I'm sure in 1977 things to that effect were done differently. Still, it seems odd to even a layman like myself.
I feel sorry for the ATC controllers that day. They must have felt very overwhelmed by a situation which was unprecedented and which they probably didn’t have training for, then they had to deal with the blame and the guilt.
I worked with a Doctor who was on the Pan Am plane. Her husband died in the crash. years later we were teaching the elements of Cockpit Resource Management to be applied in the Operating Room to improve patient safety. The Doctor spoke with our surgery staff (doctors, nurses, techs, etc. about the importance of these principles of communication and speaking up. Dramatic and stunning to hear her story.
The KLM flight also completely refueled unnecessarily while waiting on the taxiway, causing its takeoff weight and distance to significantly increase, and also fueling all the subsequent fires for hours.
It wasn’t done necessary. The pilot was extremely concerned about going up overtime and having to cancel the flight. He thought that we fueling then would save him time later.
@@Mooam But I wonder how many various safety regulations in the world have been introduced BEFORE disasters have happened for lack of regulation. It could be a great number and we just haven't heard about them, meaning such rules fulfilled their purpose.
I don‘t think That‘s The case. A lot of things were made safer due to testing new inventions. But you don‘t hear of them because these news wouldn‘t sell. Like probably in some special magazine for in this case for example aviation. But you wouldn‘t have a headline of the News be like „they changed the flaps of airplanes because testing showed the newer ones would be safer.“ It just happens.
The sad thing is Aviation Industry is the only Industry that it needs to something to happen to make the the industry safer every chapter and every pages of that book are from the blood of every disaster that comes after here are the examples - TWA 800 (Lead the way of cooling system inside the fuel tanks) - Swiss Air 111 (Any Entertainment and Devices Wires relocated outside the planes cockpit and MPET are banned as insulation material for wires) - AA Flight 11 and UA Flight 175 (Cockpit Door Change to a Bulletproof Door to prevent others to entering the cockpit and Flight Captain and Co-Captain and Flight Engineer are the only have permission to enter the cockpit)
Ikr? It's always a tragedy hearing about the victims in these videos but the highest I remember was slightly over 100. I actually gasped when he said the number on this one.
Beth Shaw was a former flight attendant. I knew her as my supervisor while at UCSD. She was a beautiful person and wonderful soul. I almost drove off the freeway when it was announced on the radio. First time in 40 years I’ve remembered this.
CRM training is now being adopted in other fields where high pressure situations are common and there is an acknowledged senior figure like in an operating room.
The "senior figure" in the OR is part of the TEAM that performs the timeout procedure prior to every surgery. Disasters occur when people continue to defer to this "senior figure".
Taxiing is one of the most dangerous parts of the “flight.” Which is why your attention, cooperation, and awareness is super important through that time. As a flight attendant, being off your phone or in airplane mode is mostly relevant so I’m more likely to have your attention if we need fo evacuate. Stay safe everyone!
4:11 Additionally, taking that turn angle would have been virtually impossible with a plane the size of a 747 in that weather. It doesn’t exactly turn on a dime and that is an incredibly tight turn. Especially with the physical location of the 747 cockpit. They’re quite high above the ground with a good portion of the aircraft sitting in front of them. The airport controllers weren’t used to handling aircraft the size of 747s (which was only 7 years in service by that time) at Tenerife.
Reminds me of the old Turn 1 at the Cleveland airport racetrack that CART used to run at. Same angle as the third exit at Tenerife as well, a tight turn no matter what you're in
I've read about this disaster many times and watched various programs about it, but I just realized for the first time that everyone who was still stuck in the terminal waiting very impatiently to be able to leave was now stuck for far longer on Tenerife by the complete shutdown of the airport after this immense crash.
This is without a doubt one of the best channels on RU-vid. The narration is always of the highest quality & has a way of keeping me thoroughly invested without ever resorting to sensationalism. Respect 👍
I really like how he presents the information with a non- biased standpoint but also with respect. I also like how he takes the time to add in the long term effects of the tradgadies. I agree, his channel is the best out there!
@@Riley_Andromeda Yeah some youtubers try to force humor into stuff like this, in an attempt to curry favor with their viewers but itd just be totally disrespectful in regards to this subject matter. I'm glad he treats these tragedies with the respect that they deserve
I actually listened to the book Collision on Tenerife by Jon Ziomek and though it was very informative, it was probably one of the most heartbreaking books I've ever gone through. Just listening to the stories of the survivors as they tried to escape the wreckage was gut-wrenching and adds to the cosmic cruelty of it all... If just one or two things happened differently on that day it would have never happened, but it turned into a perfect storm of tragedy instead...
Every disaster is a perfect storm of small decisions. Seconds from disaster is one of my favourite (seems so wrong) series which points that out for quite a few disasters.
Just one, really...a pilot taking off without clearance in a situation where he couldn't see and even his own crew was questioning whether or not the Pan-A jet was there.
Seems like an accident like this was inevitable... It might not have happened that day but the pieces were all in place (i.e. pilot culture, lack of discernable communication, random weather events like fog) Also it's interesting how no one seems to blame the dude who placed a bomb at the other airport causing everyone to land at Tenerife lol
@@christophervinson5088 I believe in the investigation the bomb thing was considered to be a secondary cause. Not directly responsible (like the KLM pilot) but a contributing factor. I could be wrong though
This video is absolutely brilliant. It has your signature clarity and sensitive treatment of a devastating tragedy. On top of that, having the graphic showing the runways and the planes movement makes the situation very easy to understand. Ditto the visual of the radio transmissions. Bravo!
Your videos are so impressive! You cover incidents that I have never heard of in my 52 years! I also greatly appreciate how respectful you are of victims - that goes a long way to ensuring your reputation as an excellent documentary creator.
Oh, I remember this one. The documentary was excellent as always, but you did miss one tiny detail. The pilot of the KLM plane decided to completely refuel while he was at the airport, as well, meaning that the plane was weighed down more than usual. This extra weight is what made him unable to get into the air as fast as he wanted before the collision happened. Again, his zeal to save time is what cost him his life and the lives of all those passengers.
Also, the refueling took a long time and the Pan Am, which was stuck behind the KLM, was unable to go around it despite their best efforts. If only they had been able to, they would have taken off way before the KLM finished refueling.
i'm pretty sure that even if he hadn't refuelled they would have been f**ked and collided with the pan am. The KLMs crazy decision to take off without atc clearance is the only real bad decision of that day, if that protocol had been properly followed none of this would have happened.
I knew as I saw this it would be a new concise fact filled take on a story I've seen many times. Bomb in the flower shop, lady that got off the plane, never heard these before! Great detail & video as always legend! 🙏🥇
I didn't know these either, plus down to 2 controllers in the tower on a Sunday. No radar, no visibility, no taxiway, no facilities virtually, no patience, no markings visible, no standard communications terminology, no procedure for such a day, no flight hours left.... what a hideous few hours of hell fire in the aftermath. 1977 was not the dark ages for technology, but I guess the age of this will be good enough until a catastrophic incident tells us maybe not. (I feel that's still true today)
@Skummeh Smithsonian Channel's Air Disasters series did this one. I don't think they covered the minute details like the woman leaving the plane and such, but it goes into great detail with the investigation and such.
From what I've seen and read the rescue crews didn't know there were two planes involved for like 20 minutes because of the fog and fire and initially only responded to the KLM crash site at first.
Yes, and unfortunately they found the wreckage of the plane with no survivors. Who knows how many more people could have been rescued from the Pan Am flight had they found that one in the fog first.
I always appreciate that your videos end with an analysis of protocol changes to prevent similar disasters. It reminds me that, though it usually takes a major tragedy, people and organizations actually can and do learn from the mistakes and take action to prevent repeat disasters. That is reassuring.
I was 16 at the time and remember this horrific accident all too well. Not only due to its magnitude, the tremendous loss of life and that it happened in Spanish soil, but because us Spaniards were constantly shown gruesome images of the charred human remains and recovery operations on every newscast of the main (out of 2) TV channel and the front pages of every newspaper and magazine. My respects for the victims, may they rest in peace.
Hi, the collapsed tree on a concert in the parc de Pourtalès, Strasbourg, France would be a interesting vid It changed on a national level how much attention was put on meteorological hazards
There was an incident at a music festival in Toronto, Canada where a stage setup/scaffolding collapsed and injured four people, and also pinned one of Radiohead's drum techs under the wreckage. Sadly he was later pronounced dead at the scene. This was not due to weather conditions but due to poorly maintained scaffolding and poor engineering design of the stage/lighting rig. An investigation ensued and the promotor was charged, I believe the engineer who signed off on the design also received some official penalty. A terrible day, but I'm pretty sure it resulted in revised safety and design standards for temporary stages in Canada.
This was a horrifying accident - I normally listen to these stories and come away with a somewhat dark feeling and sympathy ...but this left me feeling devastated. What a nightmare.
You should give the Granville train derailment a look-see! Took place in 1977 in Sydney, Australia. The train derailed as it was passing under a road bridge and took out a support pillar, which caused the bridge to drop on 2 full carriages. It gets surprisingly little attention despite being Australia's worst railway accident to date. Another serious railway accident from Aussieland is the Waterfall train accident, where the driver had a heart attack and derailed a commuter train in an area with tricky geography that complicated rescue.
I remember seeing a documentary on Granville. It's just that, outside the bushfires, you don't have an awful lot of disasters happening down under. As for your Kiwi neighbours and their earthquakes, that's a different story.
Yeah, Tangwai would be a good one to cover. Speaking of NZ and its quakes, I'd be interested in seeing one of the Napier quake! The one that lifted the whole shoreline. Or the ro-ro ferry that sank in a storm in Welly harbour, the Wahine. That was a sad story. That one cruise ship that sank in one of the scenic sounds in the 80's doesn't get a lot of attention, either. The Mikhail Lermontov. Where they reckon the pilot might have been drunk and tore it up on underwater rocks.
This incident in part is why you have readbacks in cockpit communications now. Repeating everything back to ATC and vice versa is one way of averting errors like this.
I really love this channel, the videos are always well researched but respectful, the music goes well but isn’t supposed to be spooky so it never ruins the story, and the videos always end on a positive note as it outlines the lesson learned! such a great channel
I love how respectful and thorough you are with your videos! And you don't try to cover up or try to cancel out history.. Too much history has been covered up or canceled for teaching just because it's "unpleasant". If we find any parts of history "unpleasant", don't ignore it. Learn as much as you can about it so it has very little chance of reoccurring.
The Seconds from Disaster episode that covered this horrifying incident is worth a watch if you want to know more about this tragedy. One of the details talked about in the episode not mentioned in this video was one of the biggest kicks to the teeth of all in the entire disaster. Van Zanten had the KLM plane refueled (despite not needing the extra fuel) while they were waiting to takeoff. Apparently, according to investigators, if the plane hadn't been weighed down by that extra fuel, it may have managed to just barely clear the Pan-Am flight when Van Zanten tried to takeoff to avoid the collision. (Additionally, it was also said that even if the Pan-Am pilots hadn't missed their exit, it would have been impossible for the jumbo plane to turn on such a sharp angle and make it onto the third exit in the first place.) I want to end this comment off with a thank you for Fascinating Horror for covering this respectfully, as always.
I've said this on another one of your videos but it bears repeating. Your attention to detail and the respect you show to the victims is commendable. This is easily one of my favorite channels on RU-vid. Keep up the good work.
The culmination of everything: a terrorist plot at a neighbouring airport, lack of communication, pilot impatience, and awful weather. One hopes the same mixture of multiple bad things that led to the Tenerife disaster never happens again.
@@Mochrie99 Exactly, it was like a series of little things that led to one giant disaster, and changing any one of the ingredients may have changed the outcome. It makes me so horribly sad.
I get so interested when your videos pop up because I know of things like the Hillsborough disaster, Mt Everest bodies, theme park rides, but your videos are always ones I haven't heard off before.
I've visited Tenerife and was aware of this tragedy but I'd not heard of Robina van Lanschot's lucky escape. Somehow it makes the 583 deaths hit home even harder.
I watched a Nova program about this titled "The Deadliest Plane Crash" many years ago and have never forgotten it. Truly a tragedy that was so avoidable. Patience truly is important. 😔
This news story, the DC-10 crash in Chicago, and the Jonestown Massacre are the main stories I remember from my youth in the 70s. Especially Jonestown. The pictures were especially graphic for that time. Love this channel, and I learned something new. I didn't know about the KLM passenger who got off in Tenerife. That was interesting for sure.
Remember this disaster vividly and have seen the scenario documented many times,more often than not glorifying the tragedy rather than putting the basic information across. So thankyou for your short explanation and in particular your visuals of the scenario unfolding re missing the 3rd turnoff!
I thought the Pan Am pilot was quoted as saying they couldn’t have actually made the 3rd exit as it was the wrong turning circle for the large 747 so it wasn’t quite that they missed it, more that it wasn’t a feasible turn
That's right, yes. Not to mention that in order to come out of C3 and continue to takeoff position, they would've had to make another turn of the same angle. When they discussed the turn as a crew before the incident, they were so confused by the prospect of being expected to make the C3 turn that the CVR heard them to have arrived at the conclusion that exit C4 had to be the correct exit. In retrospect, they should have radioed ATC to say the turn marked C3 was impossible for their aircraft and requested C4, but ultimately the accident still wouldn't have happened if van Zanten hadn't been so impatient and followed procedure. Heck, with the acrobatics that the PanAM would have needed to attempt to even try the C3 turn, even if they had tried to exit at C3 they'd probably still have been on the runway when the KLM went to take off.
I've watched documentaries on this where the experts investigating the accident pointed out it would have been impossible for a plane that large to make that sharp of a turn. Whether they missed it by accident or not, they were never going to get off the runway there.
Robert Bragg, the copilot of the Pan Am, was interviewed and asked about this. He said that he was convinced that before the control tower gave them the order to turn at the exit, they had been able to see the Pan Am pass the first exit before disappearing into the fog. Thus, when they wanted the Pan Am to turn, they said "the third exit" - not meaning exit #3, but rather "the third exit from your present location" - meaning exit #4. Bragg was insistent that that's what the controllers meant (I don't know if they ever interviewed the controllers themselves on this issue), and that is how he has viewed the situation ever since. If that's indeed what they meant, this was more evidence of the shoddy procedures that plagued the aviation business at this time.
@@Fortaker it's odd, because taxiways are coded: e.g. alpha, bravo, Charlie, delta. Its immediately obvious. You "exit left on delta" or Charlie or whatever. Maybe tenerife was a bit more primitive back then...🤷♂️
@@witblitsfilm That's where the nonstandard phraseology comes into play. The taxi instructions they were given should have been "turn left at taxiway echo 4(based off a current airport diagram which is slightly different than what the video showed)" instead of "turn on the third taxiway." I'm sure Tenerife was properly marked, airport markings had been standardized for at least a couple of decades before this accident.
I'm so happy you did this one. It's my favourite Mayday episode, just because it's so horribly fascinating (hah!) about how, if any one of several steps did not happen, neither would have the accident. It's miscommunication at its finest, and the result was tragic.
Hearing about the details of this incident. It was a recipe for a complete disaster. It's sad that this combination of circumstances and decisions led to such a tragedy.
I thought I knew all about this terrible accident. Knew about the single taxiway, knew that one plane was on the runway when the other took off, knew about the low visibility. What I had NEVER heard before was WHY these planes were at that field that day- never heard that there was an incident at the intended destination and they had been diverted. Thank you for fully explaining all of that. Terrible death toll and condolences all these years later to the victims.
Even knowing these videos are going to be describing a resulting disaster, these videos are delivered in such a descriptive and compelling way that everytime it gets to the disaster part I'm shocked to hear the result even when I've heard the story before. It really is a testament to how well these videos are delivered as a piece if media while maintaining a factual and respectful tone. Seriously well done.
As someone with a serious flying phobia, this is literally the most horrific aviation accident. It's unthinkable that it happened on the ground, you expect accidents in the sky. I can't even begin to imagine the terror the passengers and crew experienced in those final moments.
I used to fly every week for ~3 years until covid started. It's incredibly smooth and safe sailing, never had any issues. Luckily events like this are mostly in the past.
@@LOLHICRONO Oh I know, it's one of the safest forms of travel. But there's something about take-off that scares me the hell out of me. The noise, the plane moving about....it terrifies me, and don't get me started on turbulence! I think its worse because when planes crash lots of people die, as opposed to a car crash for example where it's usually only a few people. Plus plane crashes are normally really high profile in the news, so it doesn't help!
The only small comfort to be had for the families of many victims was that their deaths were basically instantaneous and they did not suffer. A small mercy, but it's incredibly sad and quite frightening to imagine all those people being alive and well one second and then gone the next. As the above commenter said though, such incidents are basically unheard of today, this was a one-in-a-billion freak accident
@@potatie_huhsome comfort to be had that statistically you have around a 2 in 3 chance of surving a full hull loss accident. More people died in car crashes that day in Europe than in that airline incident, yet we all continue to drive around like morons at times.
I know this one well and thrilled you did an episode on it. With how horrifying this was I was surprised to learn this wasn’t your FIRST episode! Good job on this one!!!
I find it so fascinating to hear about aircraft disasters (and the subsequent development of safety measures to prevent repeat instances), but hearing the story of Tenerife never gets any easier.
Few things to note. First is that the KLM plane took on extra fuel filling the tank to full. Van Zanten did this to ensure he had enough fuel to reach Amsterdam without needing to refuel at the other airport. This added an immense amount of weight to the aircraft. It is speculated that had he not refueled he may have been able to clear the Pan-Am plane. Second is that the KLM crew were close to going over their regulated hours hence their impatience.
I get that the crew was approaching their maximum hours, but in this case, the pilot should have said screw it and either gone slightly over or said we’re staying here and will leave when our hours can be restarted.
@@ItsJustLisa yeah I don't understand what the culture was like at the time, given the atmosphere around going over your hours, but I feel like with such an exceptional situation, and the captain being the most senior one, they would be given some sort of leeway. But maybe it was a zero tolerance kind of thing, I just don't know. Trying to save one's hide and resulting in the deaths of everyone on board has happened subsequently, mainly I'm thinking of East Coast Jet flight 81, in which the captain's decision to try and go around after realizing he was going to slightly overrun the runway, and potentially lose his job, led to the plane crashing and killing everyone on board.
@@R2Bl3nd From my understanding (my dad was an ATC at Fort Bragg) there was a tendency for superiority to trump all else back then. So if you were the pilot, nobody else on the crew had the right to question your choices unless they were willing to risk losing their job for being "difficult." And if you were a pilot for longer, you held that superiority over other pilots too. It fostered a culture where one person had the power to ignore ATC and other crew if they felt like they were right, at the cost of hundreds of lives.
As tragic as this was, the Tenerife disaster was a watershed moment for the aviation industry. As comment section indicates though, you left out quite a few details. Still, good on you for bringing this story to an audience that is not obsessed with planes
Such a complex event is probably pretty hard to summarize, you inevitably have to leave something out and you never know which details some might consider more important than you. I think this does have plenty of useful details, and is still worth watching along with the other videos on the subject.
Quite a few details that I think are quite relevant to the scope of the disaster. It wasn't just one "small misunderstanding" that caused this. It was a series of events, loaded with human factors, that caused this.
It was a 10 minute video. He couldn't post everything. He did a good job, though. There were so many things. I don't understand why all these planes, including the two 747s could not have been sent to the other islands. I am sure the other Islands were bigger. Van Zandten's decision to fuel at Tenerife is the one that has me shaking my head. What difference would it have made for him, if he fueled on the other island. He had to go there anyway. Would he have gotten over the PanAm cleanly and avoided the accident? There is no guarantee, but I would think that had he not fueled in Tenerife, he'd have a better chance.
Robina, the woman who got off the plane, must consider herself one of the luckiest people to ever have lived. I bet she lives everyday differently now.
I still believe more of the blame should have been given to the KLM pilot, he was more than prepared to take off without thinking about anyone else. Key communications were missed but he was in a rush and this played a big factor.
@@redsloane879 no not all the blame. Those blind dumb PanAm pilots that missed their turn. The shitty communication with ATC, those controllers could definitely use some English lessons. And taxiing on a runway... WTF!
@Peter V the third exit I should mind is *freaking* impossible to make a turn *especially* on a Boeing 747. It’s a BIG plane, it would be slow at best to make a turn at the third exit. Plus, the communications with the atc couldn’t have been their fault since it was at most, an unlucky coincidence that the two channels spoke, creating that heterodyne. Furthermore, it was FOGGY, the PanAm pilots would have been unable to see through the dense fog.
I was travelling to an Easter holiday when this happened. Newspapers were full of harrowing reports and pictures of the disaster, which people read on the journey. Tenerife cast a dark cloud, because it could have been any of us.
My parents were holidaying on Tenerife not long before it happened, they have previously mentioned that it shook them both quite badly although they were in no danger. Such disasters are often a grim reminder of our own mortality I suppose.
The 'culture' of crew members never being allowed to question their superior officers is still, unfortunately, very much alive and well, primarily among many Asian based airlines. In 2013 this became painfully apparent when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed into the seawall just short of the runway at San Francisco International. Turned out members of the flight crew knew the pilot wasn't getting things right on that landing, but their culture demanded that one NEVER questions someone higher in authority. That 'culture' is changing, but very, very slowly. This was the third fatal crash in Asiana's 25-year history.
That's absolutely not what happened on Asiana 214, as far as I can tell from reading writeups and the incident report. The pilot was getting things wrong, but it wasn't a "no one challenged him because he was in charge" thing, it was a "he was practicing something he'd never done before, while another pilot was monitoring him, and they were both new at their respective roles (landing like they did and instructing), and that combined with a lack of knowledge about the plane's automated flight systems led to a crash". Absolutely nothing in the NTSB's final conclusion says that a hierarchical culture contributed to the crash, and frankly I don't know what reason you would have for saying that would be the case besides just seeing that the pilots were Asian and assuming what happened.
@@titan133760 Because The Airline Travel Industry is safer than ever before because the regulations itself are made by numerous people who died in it in every chapter, in every page written on it the aviation safety regulation and procedures and also the aviation engineering provisions is all written in blood
Probably because becoming a commercial pilot requires so much education and training. That would also explain why private jets crash more often than commercial planes.
To be clear, commercial aviation is the safest. In GA (general aviation) plane crashes happen everyday If you're being offered a plane ride on a sketchy plane with a sketchy pilot in sketchy weather, nope the fuck out, no matter where you have to be
Love love love you and your channel! Well researched, concise, sober review of tragic events from history. Hats off to you sir, keep being your stellar self 😍🤓🙌🏼
I remember getting so frustrated when my flight was delayed because there was a malfunction with the computer showing the fuel tank wasn’t full. The engineers determined that the fuel tank was full by checking it manually or something (not sure I understand what actually went wrong). Looking back I’m glad they waited. It’s inconvenient and uncomfortable to wait aboard a plane, but it was for my safety.
Great job on this video once again, I’ve watched several videos on this disaster and never knew about the short staffing in the control tower, keep up the good work!!
You should have done a crossover with Qxir on that one. Would have loved that 🙏🏼 And both videos had bonus information the other one didn’t have. Nonetheless, great video. As always handled with respect and professionalism 🙏🏼
I wondered if anyone else was a Qxir fan - very unusual for two channels i follow to do the same story so close together! Great video, thanks for the extra information 🙂
@@Aj-cs6cw I mean FH is from the UK I think and Qxir is Irish. So maybe some documentation that got attention in the region a while ago which made them investigate it more and now coincidentally publishing it just days after one another. But that‘s just a theory. A RU-vid THEORY !
"We're going..." What two words in history ever resulted in such carnage..and...the trouble with great experience, ( van Zanten ), is that it is never very far from complacency.....as in this disaster.
jesus christ; i went on holiday to tenerife when i was 16 about 7 years ago, and i remember that the airport gave me the creeps, obviously heavily updated since then but definite weird energy
Another very important change from this is that ATC now uses clearer instructions to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation. When controllers told KLM that he was "cleared to Papa Beacon", VanZanten misunderstood this to mean that he was cleared for takeoff to Papa Beacon." ATC no longer uses terms like "cleared" for anything other than giving clearance. Earlier, the KLM 747 took on added fuel, blocking just enough of the taxiway that the Pan Am could not get around it. Had there been just a few additional feet, there would have been enough room for the Pan Am to steer around it and could have taken off several minutes earlier, before the fog arrived. By the time KLM finished refueling and both planes were able to begin taxiing, it was foggy. Another one of those "if only" situations that would have prevented this disaster.
It's interesting that it took this event to decide on standardization for such a crucial service. The best domestic example of that is the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. We lost 140 acres of the city. Help came from surrounding communities and states. One thing that aided the spread of the fire is that the hose connections of many of the out-of-town brigades didn't fit the couplings of the Baltimore City fire hydrants. Because of the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, firefighters standardized hydrant and hose dimensions.
Love the story of the one passenger who just got out and went home. Wonder what she thought when she first heard of the crash? Tenerife is the mother lode of airport disasters. I've known about this from when it was first reported but I've never had it explained so well. I can only imagine what the Pan Am pilot thought in his last few moments as he saw another jet flying at him? This is a classic illustration of the phrase "Haste makes waste".
The pilots on Pan Am Flight 1736 did actually survive the crash. It was all because of where they were located on the plane; the front of the plane, which did not suffer major damage.
I have watched documentaries, and listened to many podcasts and yet still I learned things from the video and the comment section. Stay safe, everyone!
