Tenerife-March 27,1977 - Democratic Underground

bigwillq

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Tue Mar-27-07 09:50 PM
Original message

Tenerife-March 27,1977

30 years ago today.

Does anyone remember this?

I just saw a special on it on one of those Discovery Channels.
I wasn't born yet when this happened.

What a disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_disaster

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Shakespeare

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Tue Mar-27-07 09:52 PM
Response to Original message

1. Yes, I do--isn't it still one of the all-time worst aviation disasters?

I was just a kid, but I definitely remember it.

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bigwillq

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Tue Mar-27-07 09:53 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. From Wiki

"The accident still has the highest number of fatalities (excluding ground fatalities) of any single accident in aviation history"

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bigwillq

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Tue Mar-27-07 09:55 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. Although this one lists 9/11

Edited on Tue Mar-27-07 09:55 PM by bigwillq

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/worst100.htm

At No. 1

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bigwillq

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Tue Mar-27-07 09:59 PM
Response to Original message

4. And this one

http://history.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/natural-man-made-disasters/what-worst-airplane-crash-history

Lists one in Japan as the deadliest.

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BikeWriter

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Tue Mar-27-07 10:05 PM
Response to Original message

5. I recall it. I was working with the Texas City Fire Dept.

We were very glad it wasn't in our area.

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Zomby Woof

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Tue Mar-27-07 10:07 PM
Response to Original message

6. I remember it well

I lived in southwestern Spain at the time, so it wasn't very far away, and with only one English-language newspaper (with headlines delayed 3 days) and one English-language station (with only slightly delayed news), this still had an enormous effect.

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bullwinkle428

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Tue Mar-27-07 10:07 PM
Response to Original message

7. I remeber reading a book on this disaster a couple of years

after it happened, back when I was in high school. If I recall correctly, the KLM pilot made a last-second decision to try and lift off which ended up saving the lives of many on the PanAm jet, even though he realized that no one would survive on KLM...incredibly tragic. :cry:

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begin_within

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Tue Mar-27-07 10:27 PM
Response to Original message

8. I remember it very well. The shocking thing now is...

...how non-shocking plane crashes are these days. I was 17 when the Tenerife crash happened, and it was really shocking. It was all over the news for several days. The newspapers had huge spreads on it and Time magazine devoted several full pages. Now, though, plane crashes get barely a mention, unless they are close and large. What's shocking to me is how desensitized we are now about plane crashes.

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wildhorses

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Tue Mar-27-07 11:29 PM
Response to Reply #8

12. what is shocking to me is how desensitized we are to all

tragedies...

'00s decade of apathy...

someone started a thread about what to call this decade

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flamingyouth

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Tue Mar-27-07 10:29 PM
Response to Original message

9. I remember when it happened.

Bit of trivia: Russ Meyer's ex-wife Eve was killed in that disaster.

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Redstone

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Tue Mar-27-07 10:35 PM
Response to Original message

10. Jesus, you weren't BORN YET? I was 24. And yes, I remember that horrific accident.

How do you suppose it's going to be when one of those gigantic A380s goes down with 600-plus pax?

Redstone

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BeyondGeography

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Tue Mar-27-07 11:24 PM
Response to Original message

11. Very sad; probably caused by a KLM pilot who was trying to get home on time

hasty take-off on a fog-bound runway after a long delay. I was a senior in HS at the time and flying all the time. Crashes seemed to happen more frequently back then but this was the mother of all calamities.

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Skittles

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Wed Mar-28-07 12:17 AM
Response to Original message

13. yes

I was in the Air Force at the time - it was just awful, such serious consequences for a human mistake

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