Tenerife Plane Crash Tragedy, by Maïga Idrissa Djibrilla

The worst disaster in civil aviation happened in Tenerife in 1979, 583 people were killed or injured. Two Boeing 474 jets collided on the runway. The Panaman Boeing 747 with 396 people on board was directed to Tenerife. A bomb exploded in the Las Palmas airport 2 hours before and the airport was closed. The KLM Boeing 747 had landed 45 minutes before in Tenerife airport with 248 people on board. Las Palmas airport was closed due to bomb alert. A few minutes before the crash, the controller of Tenerife tower informed all traffics that Las Palmas airport has just opened. Tenerife tower informed all traffics that Las Palmas airport has just opened. The controller told the Panaman Captain that he could speed up and takes off if he taxi just behind the KLM. There was a heavy fog covering the airport. The visibility decreased. Both aircrafts were still backtracking the runway but the Panaman 747 was lost because of the fog. The ControllerHad confirmed before that he should exist at the third taxiway. The Panaman Crew had just passed the third taxiway without seeing it. At the same time the KLM finished back-tracking and was performing the half-turn. When the Controller told the Panam pilot on runway to report runway clear, the KLM thought that he was clear for take-off. The Pilot forgot that another aircraft was still taxiing on the runway. The two planes collided on the runway. In the crash 583 people were killed, 64 people survived. The stressful situation is probably one of the causes.