Video: 'Tenerife Airport Disaster'

(Sunday, March 27, 1977, 5:06:56 p.m. WET) — In the worst disaster in aviation history, 583 people were killed today when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off in heavy fog, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on an airport runway at Los Rodeos Airport, on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Canary Islands.

All 234 passengers and 14 crew members in the KLM plane died, as did 326 passengers and nine crew members aboard the Pan Am, primarily due to the fire and explosions resulting from the fuel spilled and ignited in the impact.

The other 54 passengers and seven crew members aboard the Pan Am aircraft survived, including the captain, first officer and flight engineer.

The investigation concluded that the fundamental cause of the accident was that Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten took off without clearance in an apparent desire to leave as soon as possible in order to comply with KLM’s duty-time regulations, and before the weather deteriorated further.