Word: runways
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...ramp C-3 rather than use the more gently angled ramp C4? Grubbs was heading toward C-4 as he moved to get in position behind the KLM plane to make his own takeoff. If he had made the earlier turn, he might have been clear of the runway before the KLM 747 reached that exit point...
...pilot not heard the Pan Am Clipper's report that it had not yet cleared the runway and would report again when it had? Or had the KLM crew somehow mistaken the Pan Am message to mean that the Clipper had, rather than had not, cleared the runway? Even if there had been such a misunderstanding, of course, the KLM pilot should have awaited the tower O.K. to proceed...
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...
...more passengers, the plane flew on to the Canaries. There was no 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...
Visibility was later officially described as "500 meters [about a quarter-mile] and changing" when Captain Grubbs finally told the passengers: "We are taking off now." This meant that most of the 11,155-ft. runway (nearly two miles) was invisible to a pilot at one end of it. It also was hidden from the view of the tower controllers, who as at many similar airports, had no ground radar to help them track surface traffic. For unexplained reasons, the white centerline lights embedded in the runway?a further aid to pilots when visibility is poor?were not operating. Inside...