TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: October 17, 2006
On March 27, 1977, on the island of Tenerife, two fully loaded 747 jumbo jets
collided on a fog-blanketed runway, claiming the lives of 583 people in what is
still the deadliest crash in aviation history. Now, almost 30 years later, near
misses on the ground are the leading cause of aviation accidents, raising the
question of what can be done to improve runway safety. Featuring moving
interviews with the few survivors of the disaster and with top accident
investigators, this program examines the fateful confluence of events that led
to the Tenerife tragedy and its continuing relevance for air travel today.
Three decades ago, the facts of the accident were shocking and inexplicable. In
thick fog, a KLM 747 began an unauthorized takeoff, slamming into a Pan Am 747
that was taxiing on the same runway. The best and the brightest pilots,
including KLM's senior captain and head of safety, were at the helm. How could
such an accident possibly occur?
"The Deadliest Plane Crash" looks back at the crucial four hours before the
disaster, when an improbable chain of coincidences, bad luck, and misjudgments
snowballed into tragedy. The situation sounds eerily current. It all began with
a terrorist bomb threat to the airport on Gran Canaria Island that diverted air
traffic to Tenerife. The small Tenerife airport was soon overcrowded while its
control tower was understaffed. Thick fog rolled in and destroyed visibility as
the KLM plane loaded up a full tank of fuel. A series of unclear communications
and time pressure on the Dutch crew ultimately contributed to the KLM captain's
fatal error—one that violated the fundamental rules of aviation and
baffled expert investigators for decades afterwards. (See The Final Eight
Minutes.)
The program reassesses the evidence and conclusions of the official accident
investigations by the Spanish and Dutch authorities. It features gripping
firsthand testimony and personal stories from Pan Am co-pilot Robert Bragg,
flight attendant Joan Jackson, and passengers who somehow fought their way out
of the blazing, disintegrating Pan Am 747.
NOVA also investigates the improvements in runway safety that have been made in
the three decades following the Tenerife crash. Disturbingly, runway incursions
in the U.S. are still an everyday event—about 325 of them each year.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker discusses new
safety technology and shares NTSB's chilling forensic animation that
reconstructs recent runway scares. In 1999 two planes at Chicago O'Hare airport
missed each other by 80 feet, and a similar near miss happened in 2005 in
Boston. In an age when air travel safety is under constant scrutiny, "The
Deadliest Plane Crash" vividly dramatizes the need for renewed vigilance
both on the ground as well as in the air.
Program Transcript
Program Credits
