American passenger aircraft Boeing-747, capable of taking on board more than six hundred passengers and covering distances of more than fourteen thousand kilometers without landing, is today considered not only the largest, but also the most reliable. These machines are used mainly on remote routes; they transport from one end of the world to the other not so much cargo as business people and thousands of tourists.
On Sunday, March 27, 1977, a Boeing 747, owned by the Dutch airline KLM, taxied onto a concrete airport takeoff site in the small town of Santa Cruz. The city was located in one of the most picturesque resort areas - on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands). On board the airliner there were 248 people - passengers and crew members. An experienced pilot, Captain Jacob van Zanten, was at the helm of the plane. He recently brought tourists from Amsterdam to these blessed lands, and now, upon arrival in neighboring Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria, he was going to refuel there, pick up the already rested Dutch tourists and take them home.
Actually, the landing of the Boeing in Santa Cruz was forced. The fact is that terrorists detonated a bomb in one of the shops at Las Palmas airport. The situation there was extremely nervous, and therefore it was decided to send all tourists from Santa Cruz airport and receive them there.
This airport is located in a valley - just between two mountains (extinct volcanoes) at an altitude of 700 meters above sea level. Its runway is three kilometers long. However, despite the natural beauty and wonderful climate, the pilots of many international airlines disliked this airport - too often fogs visit here. But the worst of all is low cloudiness, which complicates visibility and hides the tops of the mountains. This was the weather that prevailed over the island that March day. It was Sunday, but due to the terrorist explosion, the mood of both tourists and airport personnel was not cheerful. In addition, there were 180 more planes that were supposed to either take off or land. The workload for dispatchers who speak poor English is enormous. Another problem arose: two of the three radio frequencies did not work,and the pilots of all aircraft had to operate on the same frequency. Naturally, this introduced additional confusion to the work.
The planes were accepted, but not very much released. And there was a queue on the runway. Jacob van Zanten, considered the most experienced pilot in Holland, decided not to refuel in Las Palmas, but ordered refueling directly at Santa Cruz airport.
At the same time, the American Pan Am airliner, which also landed in Santa Cruz (instead of landing in Las Palmas), was preparing for takeoff. And his experienced captain Victor Grubbs queued up for a Dutch plane, which apparently decided to refuel right on the airfield.
Soon, there were no empty seats at the airport for cars that were landing and waiting for permission to take off. The long and forced delay in Santa Cruz unnerved many pilots and passengers, who sat in their seats, sweating. Such a long delay knocked many out of the schedule and could lead to the disruption of other flights. If passengers arrived, for example, in Holland off-schedule, at night, the company would have to accommodate more than 230 people in the hotel, pay for their accommodation. The costs were enormous, so each of the pilots was in a hurry to leave Santa Cruz as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, the weather began to deteriorate, the wind blowing from the sea brought rain clouds, heavy gray drops crawled through the windows of the aircraft, the visibility dropped to almost zero. But finally the Dutch Boeing refueled and received permission to take off. He began to warm up his engines and moved to the beginning of the runway. And I had to turn on the lighting, since he was moving almost blindly. Almost at the same time, the American plane received permission to follow the "Dutchman". The passengers of both planes, who had been languishing in their chairs for several hours, immediately felt better at heart, they breathed more freely and began to prepare for takeoff.
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Controllers led the planes to the runway, relying solely on reports from the pilots. Everything went as if automatically. The dispatchers asked, the pilots answered, not paying much attention to the questions, as they watched primarily the runway. They did not see the lane well and were afraid to confuse how many exits they had passed. Since there was no visual observation and the location of the liners was determined only by the reports of the pilots, an error could occur. And the captains of both Boeing were already wrong - they could not make out where they were on the runway. The Dutch pilot reported that he got to its start and began accelerating for takeoff, while the American believed that he had moved out of the runway. Again, due to poor radio communications, the Dutchman considered that the runway was ready for takeoff, that the controllers gave the go-ahead,besides, he was in a great hurry and started the car.
The "American" could not really make out where he was, and kept trying to find an exit from the strip. The Dutchman had already picked up a speed of 250 kilometers per hour and was preparing to take off. And suddenly on the strip, Captain van Zanten saw the gray body of an American Boeing, which was trying to move off the concrete strip to the side.
It was like a nightmare. Van Zanten could not believe his eyes. They have passed the point after which there is no return to earth. He pulled the control stick towards himself, trying to immediately lift his multi-ton car into the air and fly over the Boeing. But the takeoff run was too small for this, and there was not enough speed.
The pilot of the American Boeing, Victor Grubbs, also noticed a huge car rushing straight towards him. He tried to squeeze out all the gas, but did not have time to leave the lane. "Dutchman" from above with four landing gear struts into the roof of the "American" and demolished it. The struts flew off from the impact, the mortally wounded plane crashed onto the concrete 150 meters from the collision site and immediately flared up. There were deafening explosions. The burning debris scattered hundreds of meters around, and the American Boeing was ignited. The Dutchman burned down completely. No passengers, no pilots, no stewards - no one survived. Only in the first seconds some of the passengers managed to get out of the American plane safe and sound. And the result of this tragedy was terrible - 582 burned people.
Two torches blazed near the runway. From above they were seen by the pilots of the planes who were going to Las Palmas. In the history of aviation, it was a disaster unprecedented in its tragic proportions.
Dorothy Kelly, 35, an American Boeing passenger, recalled this incident: “There was an explosion, a terrible crash, everything changed, I could not understand what was happening. Then, when the rumble died down, I saw the sky in front of me, or rather, heavy gray clouds. Then there were explosions again, this time somewhere behind. I wanted to get out, but at that moment the floor fell under me and I ended up on the ground."
The plane was already on fire, but still Mrs. Kelly returned to him and began to drag the passengers who were lying on the ground and unconscious. So she managed to save the life of the captain of the plane, Victor Grubbs.
The commission investigating the causes of the collision of the two Boeing aircraft came to the conclusion that the Dutch pilot van Zanten, who did not listen to the dispatcher to the end, was in a hurry and began to take off at the moment when the American airliner, lost in the fog, tried to leave the runway. …
From the book: "HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS". N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev