Speaking of aircraft disasters:

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Today is the 38th anniversary of the deadliest one ever. It happened on the ground.

Tenerife airport disaster

The Tenerife airport disaster was a fatal runway collision between two Boeing 747s on Sunday, March 27, 1977 at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. The crash killed 583 people, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history. As a result of the complex interaction of organizational influences, environmental preconditions, and unsafe acts leading up to this aircraft mishap, the disaster at Tenerife has served as a textbook example for reviewing the processes and frameworks used in aviation mishap investigations and accident prevention.

[Agschmid]

1. Kick.

[Blue_Tires]

2. A classic "swiss cheese" example

Not only was the KLM Captain Van Zanten highly experienced and respected, he had also done advertising and a little P.R. for the airline...Legend has it that when the KLM brass first heard about the incident, Van Zanten was one of the first people they tried to contact just to settle the media and reaffirm the airline's longstanding safety record...They were understandably horrified when they found out he was involved in the disaster...