NFPA Journal - March/April 2012 - (Page 80)

>>LOOKING BACK Canary Islands Horror The collision of two jumbo jets on the island of Tenerife kills 583 people crawl, allowing the KLM jet to reach the end of the runway and get “Get off! Get off! Get off!” into position before the Pan Am jet could exit onto the taxiway. That’s all the co-pilot had time to say to his colleague in the cockpit of Pan Am flight 1736 as it taxied down the runway at Los The KLM pilot was anxious to get going because the number Rodeos airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands, on March 27, 1977. As of consecutive hours his crew was allowed to fly would soon be the 747 turned sharply to get off the runway, another jumbo jet, up, and he wanted to get his passengers to Gran Canaria and his KLM flight 4805, emerged out of dense fog headed straight toward plane back to Holland. Instead of waiting for air traffic control to them. Traveling at near takeoff speed, the KLM aircraft slammed give him permission to take off, he began rolling down the runinto the Pan Am jet, resulting in a collision and fire that killed 583 way, right at Pan Am 1736. The heavy fog prevented the Pan Am people and remains the deadliest accident in aviation history. pilot from seeing the KLM’s lights, and by the time he started to turn off the runway it was too late. The KLM pilot managed to The events that led to the disaster began several hours earlier, when all flights into Bando airport on the nearby island of Gran Canaria—both planes’ original destinaThe heavy fog prevented the Pan Am pilot from tion—were diverted to Tenerife after Bando was closed seeing the KLM’s lights, and by the time he started when a bomb went off in the terminal. Tenerife’s airport to turn off the runway it was too late. had only one runway and one taxiway, and by the time Bando reopened, Los Rodeos was packed with diverted aircraft pull the nose of his aircraft up just enough to pass over the Pan Am parked on the taxiway for lack of space. Jets had to taxi down plane, but the KLM’s landing gear slammed through the Pan Am’s the runway, turn around at the end, and take off from there. Any midsection. KLM 4085 came to rest in what Time described as “a aircraft following had to divert onto an exit to the taxiway to molten mass” 1,500 feet (457 meters) past the point of impact. allow the planes ahead of them to take off. All 248 people on the KLM plane died. On Pan Am 1736, 326 passengers and nine crew members died. Fifty-six passengers and five Pan Am 1736 was about halfway down the runway behind the crew members survived. KLM jet when a heavy fog descended, at times reducing visibility to less than 8 feet (2 meters). This slowed the Pan Am jet to a —Kathleen Robinson 80 NFPA JOURNAL MARCH/APRIL 2012 Photograph: -/EPA/Newscom

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - March/April 2012

NFPA Journal - March/april 2012
Contents
First Word
Mail Call
In a Flash
Firewatch
Perspectives
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Elemental Questions
Dangerous by Design
A Harder Look at Detection
Conference + Expo Preview
Membership: The Sections
What’s Hot
Looking Back

NFPA Journal - March/April 2012