March 27, 2025. Tenerife at 48.
The deadliest plane crash in history happened 48 years ago today on the Spanish island of Tenerife.
The headline above, which ran the following day, was 33 fatalities short. The actual death toll was 583. For more on this unforgettable accident, see my earlier story here.
The “Los Angeles jet” that the paper refers to was a Pan Am charter that had arrived in Tenerife from LAX via New York. Its intended destination was Las Palmas, on nearby Grand Canary island, but a terrorist bombing at the airport there diverted the plane to Tenerife.
The KLM jet was also charter and also supposed to be on Grand Canary. The Las Palmas airport reopened in the afternoon, and the collision occurred as both 747s were departing again for the island.
There were over a dozen plane crashes in 1977. There was an Air Portugal crash, a Malaysia Airlines crash, two JAL crashes, three Aeroflot crashes, a United Airlines cargo jet crash, Southern Airways… Plus several others, including Tenerife. In addition to all of that, a JAL flight was hijacked, as was a Lufthansa 737. The captain of the Lufthansa flight was killed.
This was a typical year for the era. Most people today, unnerved by recent events, have little idea how common plane crashes, hijackings, and bombings once were.
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