Word: veldhuizen
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...aviation history, with a death toll of 583, including all aboard KLM's Rhine River and all but 61 people on Pan Am's Clipper Victor. Last week the Spanish government released the findings of an 18-month investigation of the crash. The verdict: KLM Captain Jacob Veldhuizen Van Zanten's decision to start his takeoff run without tower clearance was the "fundamental cause" of the accident...
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...
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...