OpenTube

The Tenerife Airport Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror

Fascinating Horror

1,125,062 views

"On the 27th of March, 1977, one of the worst disasters in aviation history took place at Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife..."

Fascinating Horror posts weekly videos covering the true stories behind some of history's greatest disasters. The channel is made possible by supporters on Patreon and YouTube channel members. HUGE thanks to everyone who supports this channel!

LINKS: 🔗
► My other channel: @fascinatinghistoric
► Support this channel: Patreon: fascinatinghorror | @fascinatinghorror
► Follow me: Twitter: TrueHorrorTales | Instagram: fascinatinghorror | Facebook: horrorfascinating
► Get in touch: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk

CHAPTERS: 🔖
► 00:00 - Intro
► 00:40 - Background
► 03:45 - The Tenerife Airport Disaster
► 08:11 - The Aftermath

MUSIC: 🎵
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory

#Documentary #History #TrueStories

20 Comments

@FascinatingHorror Creator 1 year ago Pinned

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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHVrqOC2g4g

@saragrant9749 5 years ago

It’s a sad fact that most safety regulations are written, as they say- in blood. It often takes tragedy for changes to be made.

@the_gonzo_wanderer 5 years ago

"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.

@BewareofDarkness44 5 years ago

Over 500 people lost due to impatience and human error. That's the highest death count I remember seeing on this channel.

@SharpingtonTheGreat 5 years ago

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.

@ermagerdmuffins 5 years ago

I know this happened decades ago, but I’m yelling at my computer screen: “No, you don’t have clearance for takeoff! Stop!”

@TheZackofSpades 5 years ago

“accepted responsibility and paid compensation” damn those are RARE words in a Fascinating Horror video…

@adrielsebastian5216 5 years ago (edited)

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.

@justinlane1980 5 years ago

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.

@Luubelaar 5 years ago

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.

@LClossn 5 years ago

My Grandfather survived on the Pan Am flight. Broke both his legs escaping, and refuses to talk about it up until his death 7 years ago

@solidus0079 5 years ago

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.

@0ranix 5 years ago

One thing I've learned from watching your channel is that the 70's were a wild time to be alive

@zambani 5 years ago

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.

@amydamjanovic9183 5 years ago (edited)

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.

@DulceN 5 years ago

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.

@sixstringedthing 5 years ago

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".

@TheAdditionalPylons 5 years ago

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.

@TXnine7nine 5 years ago (edited)

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.

@SilverShrimpTX 5 years ago

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.