Word: klm
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American commercial planemakers have long dominated the world skies, but their near monopoly is under assault. Last week The Netherlands' KLM and West Germany's Lufthansa, which up to now have operated predominantly U.S.-made fleets, both announced important buys of wide-bodied, twin-engined planes built by Airbus Industrie, a consortium backed by four European governments...
Before the tower had received those messages, KLM's Veldhuizen told his copilot to ask for takeoff clearance. Suddenly and inexplicably, Veldhuizen opened the throttles. Flustered, the copilot radioed the tower: "We are now at takeoff." Since clearance had not been given, the tower assumed that KLM was simply at takeoff position and replied, "Standby ... I will call you." That order coincided with a Pan Am message that the Clipper was still taxiing on the runway, but the information was garbled by an unexplained whistling sound...
...rolling KLM jet, the flight engineer twice asked, "Is he [Pan Am] not clear then?" Emphatically, Veldhuizen replied, "Yes." His KLM plane hurtled down the runway. Suddenly the Pan Am 747 loomed ahead. It was too late: the KLM jumbo smashed into the Clipper...
...could a veteran pilot like Veldhuizen have made such a drastic mistake? Harried by an already lengthy delay on Tenerife, the study speculated, he may have rushed his takeoff to avoid violating a KLM rule against crew overtime. Erratic weather conditions may also have pressed him. The radio "whistle" could have blipped out some essential communications, and imprecise language, by both tower and KLM crew, may have confused matters even further...
...European air executives are starting to realize what their American counterparts learned this summer: lower fares lead to more customers and greater profits. Recently British Airways reduced prices as much as 40%, pegging the London-Paris round trip at $92.50, vs. this summer's $154. Lufthansa, Alitalia and KLM next week will reduce fares 15% to 25% on some flights between Germany, Italy and The Netherlands. Air France is also getting into the act with a 40% reduction on some of its round trip Paris-London excursions. Other European carriers are expected to follow suit. Such news may well...