Word: pan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...occurred on Los Rodeos' single, fog-shrouded airstrip. Two 231-ft.-long Boeing 747 jumbo jets, each weighing some 700,000 Ibs., had collided?incredibly?on the ground. Taking off down a runway visible for less than a sixth of its length, KLM 4805 (the Rhine River) smashed into Pan American 1736 (the Clipper Victor), taxiing toward the same takeoff point. Roaring at full power, the KLM's hot engines (2000° F.) and massive landing gear crunched through the Pan Am's fuselage with such impact and explosive fire that aluminum and steel parts of both planes were vaporized...
...passengers and the 14 crew members of the KLM plane perished. There were 67 survivors from the Pan Am plane?most of them from California, where the flight had originated. One woman died aboard the military aircraft sent to fly the injured back to the U.S. At week's end nine remained in critical condition, suffering severe burns. The accident almost certainly will involve the highest insurance claims for any non-natural disaster. Estimates from London insurers placed the potential payout at $240 million. Survivors in California already have filed a class action suit against KLM, Pan Am and Boeing...
...terrible moments at Tenerife served as a reminder that modern man, such an assumed master of technology, will never be able to control perfectly the wondrous machines he creates. Seventy investigators?representing Spain, which holds sovereignty over the Canary Islands, the U.S., The Netherlands, Pan Am and KLM?probed the disaster. Human error seemed the most probable cause. As U.S. Federal Aviation Administrator John McLucas put it: "Apparently not everybody had his head up." The only other possibility was an unlikely malfunction in radio equipment that could have prevented the KLM pilot from hearing the last vital communications from...
This week reality stepped in. Late Sunday afternoon, a Pan American 747, chartered out of Los Angeles and laden with at least 394 crew and passengers, was taxiing along a foggy runway at Los Rodeos Airport on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. On an intersecting runway, a KLM 747, chartered out of Amsterdam and carrying a reported 249 people, was preparing to take off. The KLM captain gave his jet engines full power and roared down the runway-just as the Pan Am 747 taxied across his path. The two planes collided broadside. Flames and smoke towered into...
...Puerto Rico, a swimmer trains only for the infrequent big events such as the Olympic and Pan American trials. Consequently, Fayer said she did not have to push herself at home; she merely "did what had to be done in order to win." This helps explain her inability to gain qualifying times for the Nationals...