There is one accident that happened which is undoubtedly the biggest mishap in Aviation but only happened once.
This happened on March, 27, 1977, in the Canary islands, when a large sum of aircraft were diverted to a smaller airport in the Canary Islands after a bombing had taken place at the destination of all this air traffic.
Two Boeing 747s, both bound for Las Palmas were forced to land at the single runway Tenerife airport, which was only designed for a few small planes each day. To add to the issue the airport had such limited technology that some people described it as “medieval,” and being a Sunday only two air traffic controllers were on duty!
Finally after a few hours of waiting the Las Palmas airport was reopened and the two 747s were ordered to taxi down the runway, the plan was for the KLM plane to taxi to the end then perform a full 180-degree turn before takeoff. The Pan Am plane was told to taxi to the third exit and turn off the runway until the KLM flight had departed.
Now being a volcanic island, the weather on Tenerife could change swiftly and dramatically, at this time fog had engulfed the airport and with limited facilities the control tower could not locate any of the aircraft.
So while the KLM plane had turned and was taking off the Pan Am plane was still looking for the third exit, the planes then spotted each other with KLM traveling at over 200 kilometers per hour, and Pan Am attempting to veer off the runway: KLM collided with the top of Pan Am and exploded while Pan Am caught on fire.
All those on the KLM flight died and only sixty on the Pan Am flight including the pilot survived, this accident claimed a total of five hundred and eighty three lives, and was declared the worst accident in aviation history.
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