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Old 07-18-07, 07:20 PM   #13
Chock
Sea Lord
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Under a thermal layer in chilly Olde England
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Los Rodeos, Tenerife collision had nothing to do with the RWY and everything to do with an impatient captain who wouldn't listen to the SIC. Since then, and as a result of that tragedy, CRM is in place.
I know that, KLM Captain Van Zanten's impatience was the main cause of the accident, which I pointed out in my original post if you read it.

I was merely pointing out that Los Rodeos is an airfield which is noted for being dodgy because of its propensity to become suddenly shrouded in clouds. This being a contributing factor to the Los Rodeos collision, because its altitude makes it subject to clouds rolling over the field from the surrounding hills, a phenomenon which occurred at the time of the crash. Consequently this made the Pan Am crew unaware that the KLM aircraft had throttled up for a take off run despite not having clearance to do so, because they were not clear of the runway, nor had they announced this either.

I often fly from airfields where this weather phenomenon occurs, and you can trust me on this, it is a contributing factor to safety, if one is not careful.

In the Los Rodeos collision, the problem was exacerbated by the fact that the airport was overloaded with dense traffic, owing to a terrorist threat from ETA forcing many aircraft to divert there, which in turn forced the airport staff to use the runway to backtrack taxi aircraft into position because the number of aircraft meant that there wasn't adequate wingtip clearance for 747s to get past all the parked up aircraft, which the airport was not designed to handle. This is what the Pan Am jet was doing when the KLM aircraft set off toward it.

Chock
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