Cleared For Take-Off? (Tenerife Air Disaster 1)

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Pushkin Industries

History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“Evacuate the airport, we’ve planted bombs,” a terrorist tells the telephone operator at the airport in Gran Canaria, in 1977. By the end of that day, 583 people will have lost their lives – but not to a bomb explosion.

The planes are diverted to the neighboring island of Tenerife. Loaded with passengers, they’re forced to sit on the hot tarmac for hours. Meanwhile, the flight crews rely on air traffic control to keep them updated.

Two Boeing 747s are waiting for thick fog to lift so that they can begin the journey home; they're anxious to receive clearance to take off. One of them has just taken on a hefty 15,000 gallons of fuel. What unfolds next is the most deadly aviation accident in history.
For a full list of sources see the show notes at timharford.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:09.6	Did you know that the most deadly aviation accident in history happened on the ground?
0:18.2	You might, if you're a Pushkin Plus subscriber, because the episode you're
0:22.4	about to hear has been available to those subscribers for a year. We thought that everyone else
0:28.2	might enjoy it, and the gripping sequel, in a terrifying two-part special on the 1977
0:35.4	Tenerife Air Disaster.
0:41.2	And if you're a Pushkin Plus subscriber already, thank you.
0:44.5	I hope you're enjoying our special episodes about the Panama Canal,
0:49.0	and there is another exclusive cautionary tale coming very soon on the cancer-beating Therac machine.
0:52.9	But for now, we want everyone to enjoy this terrifying but fascinating cautionary tale
0:57.9	about the fatal consequences of a simple miscommunication.
1:06.6	Captain Jacob Veldhausen van Zanton opens up the throttles on his Boeing 747.
1:14.3	We're going, says Captain Van Zanton in Dutch.
1:18.3	The big KLM plane starts to trundle down the runway.
1:22.8	On board are 235 passengers, looking forward to a package holiday on the Canary Islands off the coast of
1:30.6	Morocco. But their holidays have not got off to a good start, because they've had to land
1:37.1	on the wrong Canary Island. They've been hanging around in the airport all afternoon, waiting
1:43.0	to be able to take off for the short hop
1:45.4	over to the right Canary Island. Finally, they're on their way. The crew were keen to get going.
1:52.9	It's been a long day. They just want to drop off their passengers, pick up the ones who are waiting,
1:58.5	and get back home to Amsterdam. The 747 gathers pace.
2:03.6	The runway is shrouded in thick fog.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Pushkin Industries, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Pushkin Industries and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.