It happened on March 27, 1977 in Tenerife when 2 Boeing 747s collided. A total of 583 people were killed.
One flight was a Pan-Am flight with 380 passengers and 16 crew members and the other was a KLM flight with 234 passengers and 14 crew members.
The airport was foggy and unfortunately there was no ground radar communication, so communication was only done by radio.
Some misunderstandings brought the 2 aircraft on the same flight path. The KLM was accelerating and the Pan-Am was stopped.
All passengers on the KLM were killed. Of the Pan-Am passengers, 258 were killed, 61 were injured and 61 were rescued.
The investigation into the accident showed that the KLM pilot attempted to take off without permission. The company compensated the relatives of the victims.
[Source: http://www.sansimera.gr]
