
๐ The Tenerife Airport Disaster: The Deadliest Plane Crash in Aviation History On March 27, 1977, the aviation world witnessed its most catastrophic accident — a tragic convergence of miscommunication, bad weather, and a series of unfortunate events that led to the deaths of 583 people. Known as the Tenerife Airport Disaster , the crash involved two Boeing 747 jumbo jets on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) in the Canary Islands, Spain. This disaster did not happen in the sky, as most would expect, but on the ground — and it remains the deadliest aviation accident involving a single event to this day. Background: A Chain of Events The two aircraft involved were: KLM Flight 4805 , a charter flight from the Netherlands operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Pan Am Flight 1736 , a regular commercial flight from the United States, operated by Pan American World Airways. Both flights were originally bound for Gran Canaria Airport, the main interna...