Tenerife: The Most Deadly Air Disaster
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Teaser: In 1977, two planes collided on the runway at Tenerife Airport. Why did the crash happen? And, given that it took place on the ground, why didn't more people escape?
In this new two-parter, Tim Harford explores the most deadly aviation accident in history. Both episodes are available now, ad-free, exclusively for subscribers to Pushkin+.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin |
| 0:12.0 | Captain Yakob, Vldhausen Van Zanten opens up the throttles on his Boeing 747. |
| 0:18.8 | We're going, says Captain Van Zanten in Dutch. |
| 0:23.0 | The big Klem plane starts to trundle down the runway. |
| 0:27.0 | On board are 235 passengers, looking forward to a package holiday on the canary islands off the coast of Morocco. |
| 0:36.0 | But their holidays have not got off to a good start because they've had to land on the wrong Canary Island. |
| 0:44.0 | They've been hanging around in the airport all afternoon, |
| 0:47.0 | waiting to be able to take off for the short hop over to the right Canary Island. |
| 0:52.0 | Finally, they're on their way. hop over to the right Canary Island. |
| 0:52.8 | Finally, they're on their way. |
| 0:55.5 | The crew were keen to get going. |
| 0:57.8 | It's been a long day. |
| 0:59.8 | They just want to drop off their passengers, |
| 1:01.7 | pick up the ones who are waiting waiting and get back home to Amsterdam. |
| 1:05.9 | The 747 gathers pace. |
| 1:08.4 | The runway is shrouded in thick fog. |
| 1:11.7 | You can't see far ahead. |
| 1:13.8 | The flight engineer says something. |
| 1:16.3 | Captain Van Zanten doesn't catch it. |
| 1:18.6 | What was that? |
| 1:19.6 | He asked. |
| 1:20.6 | It's not off yet, the Pan American. Off the runway, the flight engineer means. |
... |
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