Word: klm
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Though key questions remain, investigators have little doubt about the general sequence of events that followed. The tower ordered KLM to taxi the full length of the runway, make a 180° turn and hold. It ordered Pan Am to follow about three minutes behind and turn off at the "third intersection." There were four such turns (see diagram) providing runway access from the terminal apron and taxi strip. Ten planes congesting the apron blocked the jumbos from using the full taxiway to reach their takeoff point. KLM confirmed its orders and proceeded. Pan Am followed at about 6 m.p.h...
...fatal rendezvous had originated in two points some 6,000 air miles apart. The relatively youthful KLM passengers, including three infants and 48 children under 18 years old, had boarded the KLM flight at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. They were happily escaping rain, strong winds and some snow for individual vacations at resorts of their choice on Grand Canary Island, about 40 miles southeast of Tenerife. They had expected to land at Las Palmas, the Canaries' busiest city...
Their flight over Belgium, France and Spain, then southward over the Atlantic, had been smooth. Some may have been able to read KLM's in-flight magazine, featuring their skipper, Captain Veldhuizen, as a handsome example of the airline's reputation for "reliability." When word was radioed to the crew that Las Palmas Airport had been closed because terrorists had touched off a bomb in a local flower shop, injuring eight people, they landed at Tenerife instead. Veldhuizen took advantage of the delay to refuel his plane for the flight back to Holland. He took on 21,000 gallons...
...grumbling when word came that they would land temporarily at Tenerife, but the early-afternoon weather there was disappointing?cool, windy and foggy. The Clipper pulled into a holding area off one end of the runway. Some passengers stood at an open door to take photos of KLM 4805 as it refueled just ahead of them...
When word came that the Las Palmas Airport had been reopened, the KLM craft was still refueling, blocking the Clipper's way. Pan Am First Officer Robert Bragg radioed to KLM, asking how much longer the refueling would take. "About 35 minutes," came the crisp reply. Bragg and Grubbs measured the clearance around the KLM plane, found it inadequate to taxi past. KLM would have to take off first...