The Tenerife Airport Disaster: Aviation's Worst Nightmare

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This video is #sponsored by Manscaped.
Source/Further reading:
www.telegraph....
www.thesun.co....
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i.insider.com/...
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peterstenerife...
i.pinimg.com/o...
• Video
www.salon.com/...
• Video
• US Airways Flight 1549...
Collision on Tenerife: The How and Why of the World's Worst Aviation Disaster by Jon Ziomek, Post Hill Press, 2020
Aircraft Accident Report, Air Line Pilots Association, 1978: archives.pr.era...

[@geographicstravel]

Get 20% OFF + Free Shipping @Manscaped with code GEO20 at → mnscpd.com/Geo

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

14.99 a quarter for a new head (fnarr) minus what the bearded one said.

[@nikolagajic3105]

Please use the metric system, so the whole world could understand you.

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

That's about 3 beers.

[@genericscottishchannel1603]

Plane bad luck har dee har

[@szymonmosiolek]

I find it disrespectful for YT Premium members to put sponsors in video

[@ravenlord4]

Violate flight hours: Get in trouble. Don't violate flight hours and it costs the company money: Get in trouble. This is the same in every industry: the safety rules that are supposed to protect workers are always used as weapons against them.

[@benjalucian1515]

Thousand thumbs up. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[@markproulx1472]

Bullseye.

[@everydayhero5076]

You would think that people would have more common sense in this world.

[@Chris-hx3om]

@@everydayhero5076 Many things are common, common sense isn't one of them.

[@AdamIsUrqed]

Profits over people. Exploited employees are the backbone of almost every business that wants to stay in business.

[@crazedvole]

"Every safety rule we follow is written in the blood of someone else."

[@firewalker1372]

Exactly, we as humans are reactive and not proactive. Especially when it comes to safety and procedures. They are bad about this in the fire service. It is extremely annoying.

[@BeanMachine360]

Damn thats edgy

[@MomMom4Cubs]

Words to live by. I wish I could like your comment 💯 times!

[@PigglyWigglyDeluxe]

I think part of the issue is people aren’t inherently able to predict what problems might occur before they happen

[@AFoxGuy]

​@@PigglyWigglyDeluxe You can't predict people when they aren't predictable -Me

[@kavorkaa]

As a Tenerifian myself i remember this as a small kid,everyone talking about such terrible accident and the newspaper pages next day,even a four year old understood something really terrible had happened,still brings goosebumps watching it

[@kathleenr4047]

I was four when John F Kennedy was assassinated. Same feeling. 'Something bad happened.' The sadness in the air is palpable, even to a four-year-old.

[@gasstationguy5594]

i used to walk the hills when i was younger me and my friend found a skull placed on a pile of rocks we were scared and ran it's making more sense now i haven't thought about it in year's

[@blossomjoseph5541]

Is it true that the inhabitants of your island were isolated until the Spanish came in the 15th century ?

[@Ozymandias1]

@@blossomjoseph5541 Having been there two years ago the vast majority of the people living on the island are Spanish. Don't know if there were any native tribes. There's a sizeable number of retirees from many countries living there (mostly English and German).

[@Saekaichan]

@@kathleenr4047 not comparable but thanks for inserting yourself lol

[@rodchallis8031]

I had classmates vacationing in the Canary Islands, set to return at the time of this disaster. It's not like today where information comes quickly. It was at least 24 hours before we understood that it didn't involve them.

[@stefanschleps8758]

Like 9/11 and my ex-girlfriend who lived in New York. Or the attack on the airport in Vienna in 1985, when my mom was flying in. Now you find out in moments, back then the stress was terrible. Thanks for sharing.

[@Volcano-Man]

@@stefanschleps8758 Pan Am 103 blown up over Lockerbie, the news was announced within minutes, and people in New York were advised to contact the airline desk immediately. The flight blew up about 19:00 - 14:00 in NY! By 19:30 the world knew!

[@zylaaeria2627]

The lessons taken from this disaster are not exclusive to the airline industry. Every job sector can learn a thing or two from Tenerife; why employee cooperation is absolutely pertinent above all else. Unfortunately, many places seem to promote or idolize toxic work environments & it always ends the same way be it big or small. Everyone always waits until the last minute to finally speak up. This episode really touched me in particular. As someone who works as a lead for a department in my workplace, while my job is nowhere near that of an airline captain, I still do the utmost of what I can to ensure that everyone in my department is at their best. I openly encourage people to speak out to me if they feel something is amiss & I regularly stress how important it is that we all work as a cohesive whole. No one is above anyone else & no one should feel as such.

[@warwickeng5491]

100%, I've done a few management modules as part of my degree and one thing that's drilled into us is that in order for a workplace to thrive there needs to be an open environment where employees can share any grievances they may have and make suggestions, sadly far too often lower level employees are ignored by management

[@fyrequeene]

An excellent summary of the event. I was 14 when this accident occurred, and later became an air traffic controller, where part of our training focused on "breaking the chain" of factors that add up to catastrophe. The Tenerife Crash had so many links in its chain (only a few of which you mention here)--remove any one of them, break that link, and the accident does not happen. The radio communications are particularly haunting. Blocked transmissions were frequent when I was working (probably still are), and I got good at listening for the heterodyne that meant two people were talking at once. I can hear it in your playback of the controller's instructions at 13:30. If only the Spanish controller had picked up on it... Other commenters have mentioned the "Mayday" episode, and I can second that one, for any who want to know more about what happened that day. A big smash of the "Like" button, gentlemen: Kudos to Simon and writer Ben for giving us such a good overview.

[@tedlewis9060]

Despite its best efforts, Manscaped could not prevent the Tenerife disaster.

[@alternavent]

You must be an OGBB Legend, allegedly.

[@Ryan-yj6nb]

But the whole 747 crew had smooth balls

[@tncorgi92]

@@Ryan-yj6nb clenched up against the body in the final seconds...

[@rich7787]

If only the pilots had shaved their balls! No one would have died!

[@warwickeng5491]

Well, I just laughed, I guess my seat in hell has just been reserved

[@tensevo]

Brilliant analysis, Crew Resource Management and Back Briefing, as well as overall better radio communication, were greatly improved in response to this disaster. Let us not forget the lessons learned from this one. RIP to all who died at Tenerife Airport that day.

[@bobthebomb1596]

Yeah, don't plant bombs.

[@goochfitness26]

I watched this on Air Crash Investigation. This is one of perfect examples of what happens when you rush everything to meet a certain time. You get hundreds killed. But it’s crazy that if only a few things went differently this wouldn’t have happened.

[@MarloSoBalJr]

Literally everything would have been avoided had one pilot not rushed. KLM worrying about footing the bill for hotels now has to payoff hundreds of families for many years after the disaster. Egotistical CEOs will never learn.

[@keiko909]

it's called "getthereitis"

[@dave1135]

Van zeten got impatient and started his takeoff roll without permission. If he hadn't been so worried about the time and such a diva, the accident would never have happened

[@brianfearn4246]

@@dave1135 air France Concorde was delayed for approximately one hour and the passengers had a cruise booked after the flight. I believe Concorde took off with excessive fuel and baggage Wight plus a faulty undercarriage wheel. If you go to John Hutchins ex Concorde captain interview. He gives a very good talk about the Concorde crash.

[@neilkurzman4907]

@@brianfearn4246 Are you speaking of the Concord crash? That was caused because of a piece of metal left on the ground by another airplane being thrown up and puncturing the fuel tank of the Concord. I’m not sure why you think Weight was a concern. The plane did make it airborne.

[@gemman1]

I remember this accident. I was in College in Texas when the accident happened and knew a girl whose parents died on the Pan Am 747 on Tenerife.

[@jelle_tendon]

As a Dutch person who traveled to the Canary Islands before, I'm very surprised I've never heard of this accident until now. Can confirm, most of those airfields are very tiny and runways are very short.

[@russellfitzpatrick503]

Surprised at this as, along with the Malaysian airlines disaster in the Ukraine, it is one of the worst airline diasaters to include Dutch civilians

[@IudiciumInfernalum]

@@russellfitzpatrick503 Not to mention De Bijlmer Ramp.

[@hewhohasnoidentity4377]

The dutch government has refused to agree with the rest of the world on the primary cause. They seemed to take it as a black eye to the Nation rather than one individual. The reality is given the same circumstances the captain of any airline from any country would likely have done the same thing. The culture was the captain is God and that is final. Can't fault national pride, even when unnecessary and misplaced. I'm American, I'm used to my government claiming superiority when all available data proves otherwise.

[@goochfitness26]

Look up Air Crash Investigation on this incident they go over everything that happened they have simulations of how it occurred and gives you background on the black box’s of the planes and you get to know what the air traffic controller was doing. Actually the biggest reason for this crash was that the pan am and air traffic controller talked at the same time which caused static in the headsets of the KLM pilots so they thought runway was clear so they took off which was wrong.

[@nikkigriffin08]

@@goochfitness26 lol so you're Dutch I take it?

[@Vikotnick]

I grew up in Gran Canaria, the island where they were heading. I remember this because of two things. I used to have a babysitter who later moved on to become a flight attendant. She was on the KLM plane and died. The other, unrelated, but my neighbor crashed his small plane and died at this airport. It is unfortunately at a height and wedged between two mountains and clouds tend to flow through this gap in the mountains and is probably the only airport that I have little butterflies in my stomach for. Also for something TOTALLY unrelated, when I get a new flight sim, I always do Gando-Los Rodeos as my first flight.

[@nancytee3k]

My great aunt was killed in this accident. I want to thank you for providing such a thorough and clear presentation of all the factors involved. This is, by far, the best video I've watched on this subject. Well done!

[@kelseym4191]

I’m really surprised I’ve never heard of this. One of those things where everything went perfectly wrong. So very sad.

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

You must be young. It was 1977 and probably the worlds biggest aviation disaster ever.

[@paolobramucci3609]

As is the case with many aviation accidents, most are rarely caused by one thing, they are often the result of sequence of events. In fact, this applies to many things, which, if at one point, had a decision or action taken would have been different, it would have changed the course or sequence of events and either avoided the catastrophic result, or, minimize its affects.

[@SEAZNDragon]

Heard of this a few years ago on a show about airplane disasters. Seems like every air disaster was the worst and then forgotten.

[@RJinks87]

Never watched breaking bad?

[@markgriz]

@@RJinks87 Yep. I was 10 when this accident occurred and I never heard of it until BB

[@kkloikok]

"after both engines stopped working" Ah so that's what you call it when both engines ingest a whole ass goose

[@isabellacalavera8577]

Another suggestion, Japan Airlines Flight 123, the Deadliest single airplane disaster

[@GneissShorts]

Lol I’ve been asking other KZbinrs to talk about it as well! Amazing flying on behalf of the pilots for sure but sadly was futile.

[@mnatu21]

Wasn't that the one from Tokyo to Osaka with 5 survivors

[@isabellacalavera8577]

@@mnatu21 sadly yes

[@GneissShorts]

@@mnatu21 yes

[@mnatu21]

@KombatBard i couldn't remember the exact details but read bout that on wikipedia a few yrs ago

[@RudolfGraspointner]

I was a 17-year-old plainspotter and 747 enthusiast when this happened. I was extremely shocked when seeing the pictures in the press!

[@joshuapatrick682]

The worst accident in aviation history is also the most avoidable and the most attributable to pilot negligence (it goes way beyond pilot error)

[@lonemaus562]

More then just pilot negligence so many things on play here can’t just put everything on the pilot

[@joshuapatrick682]

@@lonemaus562 but mainly negligence. Sure he was under pressure he shouldn’t have been. Sure there were unfortunate circumstance that there shouldn’t have been but who rolls blind down a runway they just taxied up knowing it’s the only way to takeoff point as well as without having gotten clearance, if you Listen to cVR it’s clear he was being negligent. If he would have attempted clear instruction from the tower he would have been fine. The other guys even ask, is that Panam on the runway? Furthermore it was his decision to waste time refueling there instead of the destination airport that jammed up the line. He made everyone wait for him because he was “the man” and there is no way around it, the incident was his fault and his alone. If you demand confirmation aside from what’s in this video I would recommend several excellent in depth analysis of the event, like on The Flight Channel

[@neilkurzman4907]

That was not the only accident and history caused by the type of interaction with a senior pilot. In fact Korean Airlines had the same issue coming into the century. Captains from a military culture not listening to their juniors, compounded by a culture of respect your seniors. It’s why a lot of time and effort was spent training that out of the air line culture

[@SAHBfan]

@@joshuapatrick682 - You've clearly been watching one of the documentaries on this. Some of them are not as accurate or balance as they might be. For example, you absolutely cannot listen to the cVR - it has never been released. All we have available is a very short section of transcript of the final moments. What you have heard are actors reading a script padded out by the documentary maker. You are commenting on someone else's interpretation of what might have happened.

[@MrLemonz]

If you’re interested in another aviation disaster I recommend the 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision and the murder of the air traffic controller that followed the disaster.

[@alternavent]

I’ve seen so many disaster videos that I can’t believe this is the first time I’m hearing about this incident.

[@indiafox5786]

Same here! An incredibly sad story

[@neilkurzman4907]

Surprising, this is a big one in history. Hopefully nothing ever surpasses it.

[@narnigrin]

Thanks for making sure to emphasise how the airline industry's reaction to this disaster (as with any incident) has been to improve machinery, infrastructure, training and procedures in order to stop anything like it from happening again. It's so easy to take an event like this and just mine it for its horror value (add the fact that so many people are scared of flying and you've got immediate clickbait gold); you did the responsible thing by explaining all the individual things that had to go wrong for something this catastrophic to be possible and how many of those things are, nowadays, increasingly unlikely as the industry has used this lesson to improve safety on all levels. I've never been properly scared of flying, but it's treatments like this that make me feel thoroughly safe when I get on a plane.

[@cchris874]

Given accidents like USAir at LAX, Singapore Taipei ans SAS at Linate, I wonder how much we really did to reduce these kind of events. I'm under the impression that ground collisions may still be the most vulnerable area of risk today. Is enough being done?

[@torielizabeth6217]

And that pilot is my grandfathers cousin...he is kinda the dark mark of the family.

[@awzthemusicalreviews]

That's kind of sad. I put more blame on KLM than on him, honestly. If they hadn't enacted such ultimately counter productive policies concerning their pilots, I believe he wouldn't have rushed anything.

[@lonemaus562]

He was not a bad person just made a mistake that should not have had that kind of outcome , other things were in play

[@edmundthespiffing2920]

KLM put him on a flight without practical experience, only theoretical, I would not blame him.

[@reddog-ex4dx]

Thank you for commenting. Being of the family of the capt. who is generally thought of as the one who caused this terrible accident is interesting to hear from. Even with that, it was still a terrible lose to your family. Saying that he did not want this outcome is an understatement. He didn't have the intention of blowing up two 747's. From the marks left on the runway he tried to avoid what he couldn't. I think it was at that moment he realized his mistake.

[@torielizabeth6217]

I know he wasn't a bad guy but my family is very judgemental and back in the Neatherlands are sort of blue blood. (I was born in Canada so I'm kinda separated from them.) So they don't never have much patience for mistakes.

[@limeyfox]

What happened to some of the passengers on the Pan Am flight is not pleasant - one of the KLM engines (fully spooled up mid takeoff roll) went straight through the First Class section. Mulched

[@Anthony-gq7dk]

Excellent documentary and very well delivered ,as usual. This is a perfect avenue into a myriad of events in so many areas that would make for excellent documentaries.

[@Nitephall]

I'm old enough to remember this. In a documentary I saw, they said the flight engineer of the KLM asked the pilot if the Pan Am was clear and the pilot said yes.

[@LukesYuGiOhChannel]

Unfortunate how disasters seem to be the only way to fix things that should have been known of already.

[@szymonmosiolek]

Ahhh nothing better then pay YT Premium to watch great video which is disrupted with ad of balls shaver...

[@mylesbellott5676]

You would think they would add faster forward system so you could just skip pass the part you don't want to see. Ooh wait they have one, USE IT

[@szymonmosiolek]

@@mylesbellott5676 I pay YT Premium to watch video uninterrupted so no skip, no fast forward, no action from me when I am watching, no bullsh#.

[@mylesbellott5676]

@@szymonmosiolek I'm sorry this has been a utter disaster in your life, I hope you can recover from such a traumatic event of touching your screen once or twice. 😭😭 we will pray for your recovery

[@blackwatchpilot5329]

@@szymonmosiolek Then you're a total sucker. Im sure you already know that adblockers exist, so just use it.

[@szymonmosiolek]

@@blackwatchpilot5329 I feel like one. YT Premium has few other nice features, especially mobile app which are worth to pay. I watch lots of YT on TV and there is no option for ad blocker.

[@cdtaylor7732]

I’m studying to be a future commercial pilot. These procedures are also present in small aircraft flying. Using the resources at hand and improved communication are stressed now. This goes so deep as that when we do instrument approaches, we even have to all agree on the decisions. If one person does not agree, it constitutes a “missed approach” and we climb to the prescribed altitude given to us by ATC or published in our charts. Even when on clear weather days, we get to a certain point when landing where we have to decide to actually land or not. We say “Continuing” if the pilot flying assesses the landing as able to be made and it’s followed by an affirmative or negative. If the second pilot disagrees it makes the pilots perform their missed approach sequences.

[@Musikur]

Well done on the video. I thought this was a nuanced and balanced view of the disaster which avoided the trap that many documentaries make of just blaming everything on van Zanten and pretty much leaving it at that.

[@harrisonmiller6475]

Can you do 1 on the Maze Prison AKA Long Kesh in Northern Ireland?

[@patrickfallon1849]

Check out the book "Say Nothing" by Patrick Radden Keefe! All about NI and a bunch of stories about Long Kesh

[@ArchangelAva]

Great idea

[@dianaramirezjara9659]

My boyfriend lived just a few minutes by car from Los Rodeos which is the name of the airport located outside the town of La Laguna. He told me that the whole story of why the airport was build on that spot is crazy and underlined by the fact that every morning and every night there is a massive bank of fog coming in which completely covers Los Rodeos. This is die to the fact that Tenerife has quite the height and Los Rodeos is right on the height where clouds are possible which come in from the atlantic.

[@MrDlt123]

One thing not mentioned is that someone in Van Zanten's cockpit (believed to be Willem Schreuder, the Flight Engineer) asked twice as Van Zanten advanced the throttles "Is he not clear? That Pan Am?" to which Van Zanten dismissively said "Oh yes" . So there was clearly doubt about takeoff clearance even within Van Zanten's cockpit. Others claimed that he was aggravated and impatient with the situation prior to leaving the terminal. Tragic either way. It is said that this accident was the most influential of all aircraft accidents in history. It changed flying for ultralights all the way up to the largest planes on the planet.

[@StandingPat]

As an aviation professional, this video was a very informative and accurate portrayal of the events that unfolded. Please cover more aviation related incidents like Eastern Airlines 401 (it even has a spooky ghost story attached to it)!

[@rvog6584]

h.s. geography teacher wuld try to cover FL @ end of oct. ... so he culd tell the flt. 401 story on halloween :-)

[@mashrien]

Wait.. what? 1977 was OVER 40 YEARS AGO? ... the 70s were 20 years ago. Good lord I'm getting old :(

[@xaenon]

lol, I was jus treminded last week was the 40th anniversary of my enlistment in 1981. Surely it hasn't been THAT long....? There's no way I can be almost.... Sixty....? The application XAENON.EXE has stopped responding.

[@dyveira]

In military radio procedure, operators are always instructed to pause and ensure the radio net is clear before transmitting on VHF. This is to avoid that exact scenario of "stepping on" someone else's message, which you can see can have serious consequences.

[@9Apilot]

I lived in Spain around the time this happened and remember seeing unedited footage of the aftermath . It was hard for my 4 year old brain to comprehend.

[@shdw_d4rkside87]

I remember learning about this disaster during my aviation management course. Absolutely unreal

[@RRLVT]

Hey Ive seen many of your videos and you did an exceptional job on this one

[@walttrotter535]

I remember when this happened, As a private small plane pilot I followed it closely. There was second coming of Christ sized type on the headlines of the Santa Barbara News Press and it was on the news for weeks. There was so much speculation for a long time about why the plane started it's take off roll. I'm pretty sure the co pilot spoke up they weren't cleared for take off and stopped an earlier roll. It was the radio mistake and the words takes off that made the Captain finally decide to go. In this video I learned about the Captains time in simulators. I had never heard of that before in other videos by Alec and TFC. Learned something from Simon, that's why I subscribe.

[@zerokmatrix]

This terrible tragedy was excellently and sensitively covered in this video. Simon is right about our statics obsessed culture people see this accident more in terms of numbers than the fact that hundreds of real men, women and children died that day and the affect it had on everyone connected to the tragedy. People such as the survivers, the families and friends of the dead and injured, the air traffic controllers, the rescue workers, the medical professionals who had to tend to the dead and injured, the surviving pilots, the airport terminal staff, the passengers and pilots of the other planes who witnessed the accident and the aftermath, the accident investigators and probably even the terrorists who planted the bomb which closed the other airport. And of course the families of all the people listed above. It might be known as the worst accident in aviation history, where 583 people lost their lives, but that is just the tip of the iceberg when you consider everyone who was affected by this disaster. This list of people affected both physically and mentally runs into the thousands and forever changed their lives.

[@guywholikesplanes]

Sadly, many of today's aviation safety principles where those forged in this kind of hellfire

[@prabhaspandey9185]

Nicely explained. Great Video. As a suggestion, do also include 1996 Charkhi Dadri Air Crash, dubbed as the worst mid air collision in aviation history.

[@trumpsb757sucks5]

Yeah man, dumb me looked at the aftermath pics when I was young and still regret it.

[@triggeredcat120]

What a sad state of affairs. Reminded me of the Ukraine plane that was shot down last year. Men, women, and children.... gone. 😞

[@hagnat]

last year ? you mean 2014 ?

[@person.w9780]

@@hagnat nope, last year in Iran, the flight was ukrainian

[@triggeredcat120]

@@hagnat I'm talking about the one that happened in September 2020. Iran shot a passenger plane down killing all on board.

[@demonprinces17]

That wasn't a accident

[@triggeredcat120]

@@demonprinces17 Well no it wasn’t of course. I just couldn’t help but think about it.

[@leejoelbeasley5005]

in another documentary about the the accident, on the voice recorder of the KLM you can hear the Flight engineer say "he not trying to take off Now?" which means he (THE FLIGHT ENGINEER) understood the instruction. also the KLM tried everything they could to make sure their "man" was not found at fault in any way.

[@tythegolfer6279]

Just a weird fact the Canary islands is where Ghislaine Maxwell's father was found dead off his yacht.

[@DoctorChained]

He commit suicide

[@tythegolfer6279]

Like Epstein I'm sure

[@matthoward7645]

@@DoctorChained actually he was last seen on his yacht assumed accidental drowning, he didn't kill himself he's buried in Israel with a Jewish burial wouldn't be there if he topped himself

[@BigMobe]

A black box is generally any canned device where usually only the interface is important. For example, for the average person, a TV is a black box that signals can be sent to for audio and video to be returned. There is no reason to open it or even know what is inside as long as everything on the outside is working properly. Also when I approach a problem I assume that everything is wrong so, that if I should come across anything even it isn't related, I can address it to avoid a chain of events that could lead to failure. It's never good to be the reason a new warning label or safety policy is created.

[@anelecky]

I'm from Gran Canaria, but I was born in 2000 and this is the first time I've ever heard of this. I'm genuinely shocked...

[@bloodyapril6392]

I can,t believe it. I was 7 yrs old when this happened and in a Catholic boarding school. When a brother came into the dormitory and told all the kids to pray for almost 600 people killed in a place called the Canary Islands. I kept on asking where are the Canary Islands? I was told they were off Morocco. I will always remember the Canary islands, March 27, 1977.

[@nicklager1666]

Considering plane disasters maybe worth doing the el al flight 1862 that crashed into an apartement complex in Amsterdam. I remember the footage from the news vividly when i saw it as a child.

[@trumpsb757sucks5]

A China air 747 freighter also had the same fate, ACI used the China Air as a reference while investigating the EL AL

[@ryqd]

19:44 "Never did manage to get ... off the ground."

[@ItsAsparageese]

.......................... BA-DA BUM BUM TSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH

[@MomentOfReason]

19:07- United 232 is also a good example of CRM... not everyone survived like US Airways 1549, but there were survivors, perhaps more so because Captain Haynes accepted the help of Dennis "Denny" Fitch, an off duty captain and I believe a flight instructor as well.

[@Cobra0789]

Suggestion: The 1871 and 1881 Michigan forest fires. The 1881 Thumb Fire fire killed nearly 300 people and was the first crises that the American Red Cross (and many people in the nation) aided in. There are a lot of witness accounts and illustrations to pull from. It was also a major turning point in fire safety.

[@Kirovets7011]

Sorry Simon, but i missed one detail in this video. Before Van Zanten pushed the engine levers, his co-pilot asked him: "Are you shure the American left the runway?" Van Zanten replied: "Yes". And the rest is history. Exept from this little error, i can say: Well done Simon!!

[@BenTheKidd]

Please do a video on the South Korean Sewol Ferry tragedy!

[@blastyfs2]

as I always tell people who tell me that I am far more likely to get in a car crash than an aircraft crash, you are totally right but you are far more likely to SURVIVE a car crash

[@SMHman666]

blastyfs2 Yeah, you can have numerous car accidents and walk away from all of them, while planes....not so much.

[@z3r0out]

I saw in my recommended before I took off on a airplane. Didn’t help with my anxiety 😂

[@ComaDave]

I remember it well, my 13th birthday was on the 25th March. It was Monday morning on the 28th here in Oz and I ended up late for high school after watching this all over the morning news. Needless to say - it was all anybody talked about, that day. Still amazes me how so many people had never heard of it in the ensuing decades.

[@RobSchofield]

A sympathetic and sombre examination, well written and presented.

[@MrTkillian]

And all I knew about the Canary Islands was that they're a popular vacation spot for muggles.

[@StephenLuke]

RIP To the passengers and crew of KLM Flight 4805 and the 335 passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 1736

[@stevepashley795]

As always Simon and the team , you delivered a great video, obviously well researched. Thank you

[@douglee2273]

I was 17 with a high school trip sitting in the airport in Gran Canaria when the bomb went off. We were all ushered from the lounge area outside onto the ramp and told to go find our plane and board it. We were far from the only charter trip in the lounge, so you can imagine what a zoo the ramp was, with people running in every direction. Finally we all boarded the correct planes and took off. But then we ended up just circling the area for a while. Finally the captain came on the PA and told us that there was a major crash and we had to just hold where we were for a while. That was the first and only news we had. Meanwhile our families back in Canada were going nuts because they had heard about the accident but had no way to find out if we were involved. 8+ hours later when we finally landed, we all rushed to pay phones (this is 1977 - no cell phones or air phones!). When I finally got to my house and heard about the real extent of the accident, it was mind-boggling!

[@douglee2273]

BTW it took me over two months to finally stop avoiding watching this. But it is a very well done summary of what happened, treading the very fine line between facts and blame. Good job.

[@deborahdick6527]

Simon i would really like it if you could do the Lockerbie disaster . It affected so many ppl and a whole community for generations

[@trumpsb757sucks5]

PamAm 103 Edit: PanAm 103

[@Warwallaby]

Lol, he said “anti-chafing boxer briefs,” but the CC decided he said “anti-chicken” instead.

[@laurakastrup]

The KZbin Channel Wonder did an excellent breakdown minute by minute of this specific crash and the aftermath, including interviews with survivors It’s horrifying because it’s realistically portrayed but I do very much enjoy the breakdown

[@Taser1-1]

A common joke in the industry is that the hump in the 747 is to fit the (any captain) ego.

[@kazakov1667]

Was actually very surprised that this wasn’t covered sooner but I’ll take what I can get

[@HumminbirdMoth]

Oh Yes, It was covered. The Dutch KLM pilot was also the company's poster pilot. The co-pilot was too timid to yell loud to him that the tower has not given "OK to Take Off"!!

[@ferns9555]

The initial 328 deaths we're due to being trapped in the plane, some got killed by the flying debree caused by the still-running engine on the intact left wing, 5 later lost their lives in hospital due to injuries. According to reports, many people pass row 33 or 37 weren't able to make it out due to one of KLM's main landing gear got cought into the fuselage during the collision. 13:29 Wait is that from the CVR audio of one of the planes involved? Or is it just a reconstruction?

[@joshuapatrick682]

I’ve watched this incident on the a flight Channel Alec Ibay’s channel and this is the first one to do backstory on the captain Van Zanten’s lack of recent experience in live flight as well as the simulator ATC info, thanks!!!

[@ieuanbriers]

This is incredible. I heard of the Tenerife air disaster but didn't know that much about it. Talking of terrible collisions, could you do a video on the marchioness incident. When a pleasure craft was hit by dredger in the middle of the Thames.

[@curiousworld7912]

I was flying to Holland in May of '77, and was booked on KLM. I assumed it had to be the safest airline in the world, after what had happened just a couple of months earlier. Horrible tragedy - which I must say; it's too bad it takes something like this to make systemic changes in how an industry is run. Of course, this was a 'perfect storm' of various situations coming together in making for this tragedy, but the culture of the airline industry changed after this - and, for good reason.

[@feiya7506]

I remember I watched Air Crash Investigation on NatGeo about this. Gosh, it was nerve wrecking to see the drama behind the cockpit. The pro pilot was very arrogant to his juniors...

[@krash66]

I was 11 years old and still remember this Tragedy. So sad.

[@deemariedubois4916]

Whenever I hear the location...Tenerife...I think about this horrible accident. Nothing else about this island, just this accident.

[@bdgobin]

So tragic.

[@getsmarter5412]

KLM’s version said VanZanten was not under any time related stress. The whole issue of refueling to make sure he had his flight time to make it back to Amsterdam was directly related to time, jamming up the Pan Am, and setting the stage for 583 deaths.

[@andrewjoeljackson4653]

great video. i hope to see one on the Lockerbie plane crash/bombing in the future

[@crazymotherofcats3361]

I'm in love with Simon. not it that way but more like best friend/brother I watch all vids on all channels I'm a recoveryin addicts (4 years clean) so I literally don't hang out with anyone except my cats & co-workers while at work so I've gotten quite used to watching simon everyday he gives me facts laughs & helps pass my time I greatly appreciate the boy with the blaze!!!!!!

[@derekbell4641]

5:14 - This is footage of the first 747 ever lost - a Lufthansa bird - in Kenya.

[@dodge96neon]

simon should do a video on what it was like traveling by plane before 1960. just imagine no security check points . i wonder how much less time people spent at the airport then as opposed to now

[@hebrewhooligan5462]

When I was training to become an Air Traffic Controller we learned all about this accident and what things we can do to stop it from ever happening again. It's something every Controller knows about. There is a poster I see all the time that compares all the things that went wrong to Swiss Cheese. Like if anyone had noticed anyone of those mistakes they could have stopped the accident.

[@kimchi2780]

An accident did happen like this again in 1991 at LAX. USAir Flight 1493 slammed into a Sky West plane after the controller cleared them for landing after she cleared the Skywest to sit on the runway.

[@LeoDomitrix]

The best part of this video is that Simon can talk about Manscaped without laughing.

[@Thevinylhead]

Heard this a long time ago. My parents live on the island El Hierro, and this has been on my mind every time I have booked a flight to them. But hey, thanks for the code to Manscaped, placed my order there.

[@multiyapples]

Rest in peace to those that passed away.

[@Susie_Floozie]

Thanks for the full story! In the late '80s, this event came up when I interviewed iconic nudie-movie auteur Russ Meyer. I asked about his wife Eve Meyer, who figured (literally) in his early films, and Russ regaled me with tales of their life together. Then he dropped one helluva coda: Ten years before, Eve Meyer had died in the Tenerife disaster. She was a passenger on that PanAm flight. Fuuuuh, I didn't know what to say.

[@coxymicrofilms]

I want you to do one on the air rhodesia flight 825. A good friend of mine lost his uncle that day he was the pilot.

[@pjousma]

I'm Dutch born 1983, but I remember the crash and van Zantens face from TV

[@NickCC23]

Jacob van Zanten, the KLM pilot was considered THE star pilot of the company.

[@ryanclark9590]

I will never get use to how Simon says behemoth

[@cubeincubes]

Putting an ad about a ball trimmer right in the middle just seems disrespectful. Think of the 50 children you mentioned earlier?!?

[@thefloop2813]

It's called the "Black" box, not because of it's color, but for much more ominous reasons.

[@MatthewHarrold]

Why don't you use metric measurements and put up "helpful" captions for the slow folk over the pond?

[@andreiyy]

for better or for worse, aviation is carried out in English and imperial units, that is the standard

[@bradlevantis913]

CRM has moved to other transport industries. I work on a ship and today officers regularly ask the most junior person for input. Those who died will never realize the countless lives that have been saved since. I can safely say I’m one of them.

[@brianoneil9662]

Well done. Concise, informative without being crass. You must be British or something...

[@thejudgmentalcat]

Nah mate, he's definitely Aussie 🤣

[@DixieHomestead]

You obviously haven't watched his channel called Business Blaze....

[@Pete4000uk]

Despite a lot of modern technology, aircraft still use VHF AM radios. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as with one button press a lot of aircraft know what's going on around them.

[@rubycelica]

the speed of the narrator telling the story leaves me breathless and nervous... hopping over to mayday to listen to it!

[@gavinisdie]

11:48 that simulation has some meme potential

[@kultur-vultur]

Simon I think you need a channel dedicated disasters, not that you would have the time for it, but I could see it doing well.

[@amandadebattista3764]

What a tragedy. Myself I remember vividly the PAN Am Lockerbie accident, since the bombers planted the bomb at our local airport in Malta before the plane proceeded to the UK.