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The two sister aircraft that had so disastrously converged in the distant Canary Islands fell victim to split seconds of bad luck. There was every evidence that KLM Pilot Veldhuizen had heroically pulled the nose of his huge craft abruptly into the air to leapfrog over the Clipper. Pilot Grubbs was also violently yanking his ship to the left to get out of the way. Experts estimate that the KLM plane needed only 25 ft. of added altitude to avoid the collision, saving the Pan Am passengers. Whether Veldhuizen could have controlled his plane to avoid crashing is questionable. "He probably knew he had no chance himself," said a Pan Am investigator at Tenerife. "He tried to save us."
The fatal rendezvous had originated in two points some 6,000 air miles apart. The relatively youthful KLM passengers, including three infants and 48 children under 18 years old, had boarded the KLM flight at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. They were happily escaping rain, strong winds and some snow for individual vacations at resorts of their choice on Grand Canary Island, about 40 miles southeast of Tenerife. They had expected to land at Las Palmas, the Canaries' busiest city.
Their flight over Belgium, France and Spain, then southward over the Atlantic, had been smooth. Some may have been able to read KLM's in-flight magazine, featuring their skipper, Captain Veldhuizen, as a handsome example of the airline's reputation for "reliability." When word was radioed to the crew that Las Palmas Airport had been closed because terrorists had touched off a bomb in a local flower shop, injuring eight people, they landed at Tenerife instead. Veldhuizen took advantage of the delay to refuel his plane for the flight back to Holland. He took on 21,000 gallons.
By contrast, it was mostly an elderly group (70% were 55 or older) who paid up to $2,500 each to fly the 7,100 miles from Los Angeles to Las Palmas, where they were to board the M.S. Golden Odyssey for a twelve-day "Mediterranean Highlights" cruise. The congenial tourists, including about 40 from the affluent retirement community of Leisure World near Laguna Hills, Calif, had some 75 unexpected extra minutes to get acquainted at Los Angeles International Airport when their charter flight was delayed. Roy L. Dorcich, 70, told Jim Naik, 37, an officer of the Royal Cruise Line, Inc., which booked the tour: "I wish I could take more of these cruises. I enjoy life so much and it is so short," He did not survive the crash.
After a stop in New York City to refuel, pick up a new flight crew and 14 more passengers, the plane flew on to the Canaries. There was no grumbling when word came that they would land temporarily at Tenerife, but the early-afternoon weather there was disappointing—cool, windy and foggy. The Clipper pulled into a holding area off one end of the runway. Some passengers stood at an open door to take photos of KLM 4805 as it refueled just ahead of them.