MovieChat Forums > Mayday (2003) Discussion > Question re the Tenerife disaster

Question re the Tenerife disaster

posted 17 years ago by Rosabel
7 replies | jump to latest

When the KLM pilot saw the turning PanAm plane blocking the runway as he attempted to take off, he tried as hard as he could to get his plane up in the air in order to clear the obstacle. I was wondering, was that his only choice at that moment? I understand that the visibility was so poor, he only had seconds to react before the collision, but could he have aborted the takeoff and veered to the left instead, or was it too late for that? I know it's no small thing to drive a 747 off the tarmac at high speed, and there still would have been a crash, but maybe it wouldn't have been QUITE so bad, and there might have been more survivors.

Maybe it's physically impossible to change plans once a plane is accelerating and "committed" to takeoff - I'm just thinking of the usual tactic for avoiding a collision when ships are travelling towards each other - each steers to the left, and the PanAm plane was ALREADY halfway through a left turn. I was just wondering if there was any other possible course of action for the KLM pilot, as the PanAm pilot couldn't do anything more than he was doing, which was trying to accelerate to get out of the way.

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

[–] Nozza_1000 17 years ago

At the speed he was travelling by the time he reacted and started to turn it would have been to late. Put simply once he commited to take off they were doomed.

[–] Rosabel 17 years ago

Thanks, Nozza. I figured that was probably the case, but the accident was so horrible, I kept trying to think of SOME way it could have been avoided, even at the last moment.

I think it's hard to appreciate just how big planes are, or how fast they're going when they're about to take off. I know I've never stood beside a runway to experience the size and the speed of one of those machines going by - we see them from an airport lounge window, and the distance makes it hard to really understand. The same way a train doesn't look as if it's going that fast when you're a mile away - your brain doesn't realize that the only reason you can see it at all at that distance is because it's so big. I remember one detail from 'Mayday' that struck home; when they said the pilots in the PanAm were 10 meters up in the air, trying to drive that plane down the runway. I could relate to that - "It's like standing on top of our 3-story townhouse," and suddenly it seemed very real. Then I thought of how tiny that pilot's window looks when you look at the entire plane, and I got a real sense of the size of the thing.

I suppose it would be like driving your car at 80mph towards an overpass, and someone drops a boulder that lands 10 ft in front of you. At that speed, and with the mass of your car moving forward, there's no possibility of any reaction that could make any difference at all.

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

[–] TheEmulator23 16 years ago

It wouldn't have mattered what was done.

[–] franzkabuki 11 years ago

Unlike attempting to "veer" anywhere, they did have slim chance, commencing take-off - and they did `almost` clear the PanAm. Now, if only they hadn`t just refueled and the aircraft wasn`t at its heaviest...

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] shootertwit 8 years ago

Another thing to consider is, the KLM pilot decided to top his tanks up even though there was no need to as his flight was only to be about 30 minutes, in topping them up it made the aircraft several tons heavier, if he hadnt have topped them up then his aircraft would have been lighter and may have just cleared the other one.
Of course we'll never know, but the program did touch on the possibilty.

[–] Stratego (31083) 4 years ago

"as the PanAm pilot couldn't do anything more than he was doing"

Are you freaking kidding me??? He shouldn't have been there in the first place!