The sweet scent of flowers reaching their boats inspired ancient Romans and Greeks to call them "the Fortunate Islands." The refreshingly mild and breezy climate was praised by more modern travelers as "perpetual spring." But early natives of the Canary Islands,*70 miles off the northwest coast of Africa, knew better. They chose the name Pico de Teide (Peak of Hell) for the 12,200-ft. volcanic mountain that looms broodingly over Tenerife, largest of the seven major islands: the natives thought the devil lurked inside it. Last week Tenerife was about as hellish as any place on earth can get.
The evidence of a single moment of holocaust lay mutely within a low-slung white hangar at Los Rodeos Airport on a 2,073-ft.-high plateau nine miles from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the island's major city. Row after row of dark wooden coffins filled the entire floor of the 150-ft. by 150-ft. building. Inside the gleaming, metal-lined boxes lay the charred and mostly still unidentified remains of 576 victims of the worst accident in aviation history. The limbs were fixed in what pathologists term the "pugilistic position"—arms extended upward and bent inward. At Tenerife, this death posture, common in burn cases, looked like a gesture of supplication.
The inferno had occurred on Los Rodeos' single, fog-shrouded airstrip. Two 231-ft.-long Boeing 747 jumbo jets, each weighing some 700,000 Ibs., had collided—incredibly—on the ground. Taking off down a runway visible for less than a sixth of its length, KLM 4805 (the Rhine River) smashed into Pan American 1736 (the Clipper Victor), taxiing toward the same takeoff point. Roaring at full power, the KLM's hot engines (2000° F.) and massive landing gear crunched through the Pan Am's fuselage with such impact and explosive fire that aluminum and steel parts of both planes were vaporized. The KLM's giant engine airlets sucked fragments of the Pan Am jet into its innards before crumpling into a molten mass 1,500 ft. past the point of impact.
All 234 passengers and the 14 crew members of the KLM plane perished. There were 67 survivors from the Pan Am plane—most of them from California, where the flight had originated. One woman died aboard the military aircraft sent to fly the injured back to the U.S. At week's end nine remained in critical condition, suffering severe burns. The accident almost certainly will involve the highest insurance claims for any non-natural disaster. Estimates from London insurers placed the potential payout at $240 million. Survivors in California already have filed a class action suit against KLM, Pan Am and Boeing for nearly $2 billion.