The Tenerife Airport Disaster (Disaster Documentary)

The in-depth story of The Tenerife Airport Disaster

The Canary Islands! An all-year refuge for all those yearnings for the sun! For a long time, the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean has been attracting tourists from all over the world. It is a place to be now, as it was back in the 70s. However, back then, the islands became known worldwide for the worst disaster in aviation history.

Watch true stories from history:

Write your ideas for new videos in the comments! See you next time.

This disaster documentary is inspired by the fantastic "Fascinating Horror".

#thetenerifeairportdisaster #darkhistory #disasterdocumentary

[jfbeam]

I've studied this incident. van Zanten was a very pushy, arrogant captain. (Most experience, trained everyone, so thought he knew everything and was always right.) As I recall, the CVR shows they did get Pan Am's radio call, but a**hat was already at full throttle. Both the FO and FE voiced their lack of takeoff clearance, but van Zanten knew all ("we have clearance") and rolled anyway. They (KLM) were under a serious time crunch before they'd have to fly in a fresh crew. Yes, there were mis-steps with ATC. Yes, there were radio problems. But there was ZERO excuse for not being 100% clear, and 100% safe. (other than van Zanten knowing everything.) van Zanten was going to do whatever he wanted to do, and no one had the balls to question him. That arrogance cost 583 souls.

[jessicamiller]

For the record, there was 1 lone survivor of the KLM. Her final destination was Tenerif (sp?) and her boyfriend was there, so her friends told her to stay and they would see her later and took her boarding pass back (or something like that...I can't remember all the details). KLM was forcing her to get back on the plane to go to Los Palmas then catch another plane to Tenerif. So she did what any young girl in love does...she didn't listen and stayed in the airport.

[whofandb]

The KLM captain was the primary cause of this accident. There were several other contributing factors but ultimately he chose to go without proper authorization.

[alessandrorazzolini]

As a pilot myself I can assure the video is well done, of course it simplifies a lot, but key points are there. Not a lot to add to the explanation itself. The good thing is that from this accident industry as learnt a lot, not only in Tenerife but everywhere in the world. The 1977 Tenerife accident is the one that all pilots know, especially those that weren’t born that day, it summarises all the things flight instructors highlight when giving flying lessons, what to do, what to avoid.

From that day of 1977 things have changed for ever: CRM was introduced, that is Cockpit Resource Management, which is taught since the early stages of flight training, then again on any big airplane you start to fly, and then again, mandatorily, over a course lasting 3 years while you work as a pilot (Captain or First Officer doesn’t matter). Once you finish those 3 years you start over again, until you turn 65 and retire. This means that if you start your career at 25 with your first big airliner job, you learn CRM over and over again for 40 years. A good thing into a good thing: CRM training is constantly updated, it doesn’t remain the same. As new airplanes are manufactured, new studies are conducted, new possible threats are discovered, the training changes to adapt. One example: until few years ago it was taught to avoid some kind of behaviour to avoid accidents. Although this is true and of course still taught, the industry recognised that accidents will happen anyways; you can reduce them but you can never totally 100% avoid them from happening. So the CRM training now also focuses on the “don’t let the accident happen, but if it happens, know how to react”. Training has also been focusing on “identifying threats before they turn into accidents”.

Another big change, which is partially mentioned in the video, is that now inside the cockpit all pilots have the same “authority”. Yes there is the captain, yes there is the co-pilot, but once the cockpit doors closes, before engines are started, they don’t exist anymore, from now on it’s only PF and PM which is short for “Pilot Flying” and “Pilot Monitoring”. Sometimes it’s even less specific: it might be just CR1 and CR2 that is “Cockpit Resource 1” and “Cockpit Resource 2”.
I want to add, in conclusion, that what I mentioned so far is just the “tip of the iceberg” of what safety in aviation really is.
This is what makes air travel the safest transportation mean and one of the safest industries in the world

[doblove]

This accident was like a Final Destination plot. I mean, the KLM captain was reckless af, but there also were so many random factors that contributed to the perfect storm.

[dailylifewithsteve]

I was watching this one thing and it said when KLM heard one of their planes went down they were looking for Van Zanten to lead the investigation and were absolutely shocked to learn he was one of the people involved

[TheChibiGingi]

Edit: As many have correctly pointed out, this is the Swiss Cheese Model in Effect, NOT the butterfly Effect. Thanks for the correction and education 😅

I feel this disaster is one of the best examples of the butterfly effect: SO many minuet things occurred and if a single one of them had been removed from the equation, this disaster might not have happened at all. Had the pro-revolution group not acted out that day and forced flights to divert to a smaller airport, had the Pan-Am flight not been delayed when arriving to the original airport, or if the Pan-Am flight made it to Los Rodeos before the KLM flight, had the Pan-Am been able to move past the KLM flight to leave BEFORE the KLM and before the weather got really bad, hell, had the KLM flight decided not to refuel, they'd not have been too heavy and could've lifted off seconds sooner, making it a near miss. There's SO many factors in this disaster that I could go into, but just changing one of those things, A SINGLE ONE, and this wouldn't have happened. God damn, I can't help but think about it every time the topic comes up.

[Oatmealism]

I used to have a friend who lived on Tenerife and worked at the airport, he told me how you could still find parts of the two 747s if you looked long enough.

[rmcockerrescue]

The boss I had at that time, lost both of his parents in this tragedy. He was devastated. James and Alice Barkdull🙏

[kyleeconrad]

I have always wondered if the KLM hadn't refueled to capacity if they wouldn't have been too heavy and maybe cleared the Panam or if it truly wouldn't have mattered.

[elizabethtrudgill]

No one can really blame the Pan Am captain, he was at an airport he had never been too before, looking for an exit that was too sharp for him to turn in to and it was hidden by thick fog. Chances are both planes may have still collided while the Pan Am was doing that sharp turn.

[mike.]

I was coming down the steps from my flight as the 2 Jumbo jets collided. The airport was jam packed with aircraft diverted to Tenerife along with the usual traffic and the visibility was very poor. With no ground radar the ATC couldn’t see any of the overcrowded airport. When my wife and I returned home two weeks later the burned out wreckage was piled up at the side of the runway, it was a very unsettling sight.

[char]

One of the reasons was the KLM captain hadn’t flown for a long period of time yes he was the face of KLM airlines but he flew in the simulator as a teacher to other pilots and a simulator you don’t have ATC he became his own ATC. Pan Am couldn’t have got off on the third exit because that’s 148° turn a 747 is too big to do that that’s why they wanted to get off on the fourth because that was a direct turn

[tiadaid]

An interesting fact that not often mentioned when talking about this disaster is that the Pan Am aircraft in question, Clipper Victor, was actually the same aircraft that inaugurated 747 services in 1970. It was also the first 747 to be hijacked.

So for it to notch three distinctive firsts, is an amazing coincidence.

[pseudobean]

I know it would cause delay and discomfort, but given that it was such a small airport, the planes all should have been grounded until conditions cleared. I've been a dispatcher where everyone uses the same radio frequency, and it's chaos. Not saying the KLM pilot was in the right, but if the fog was that dense, no one should be taking off.

[melanierose]

It’s so crazy how so many different things had to perfectly happen for this disaster to occur. Bomb threats to make one plane go to that air port, interference, fog, and the one that tried to doge went in the perfect spot for them to hit the fuel tank.

[Ccyawn]

“Burned down to conditions beyond repair” is the biggest understatement of ….ever

[paulorocky]

And this is why you don’t complain when your flight is delayed due to weather conditions.

[hawyadoin]

Just found your channel last week. I binged every video in a couple day. Great content man. May I suggest the 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse?

[joshwheeler]

Couple things to note. First thing is that the KLM crew were under immense pressure due to a recently changed law that made it illegal for pilots to fly for over 12 hours. Doing so would result in your pilot's license being revoked along with possibly facing criminal charges. Second thing is that the Pan Am could pass the KLM due to the fact that the KLM was refueling at the time. The KLM filled up their tanks to return to Las Palmas and then Amsterdam. This added a great amount of weight. Had he not refueled, they would've reached V1 a lot sooner and could possibly avoid the Pan Am.