On March 27, 1977, when 2 Boeing 747 passenger planes crashed into each other on the runway of Los Rodeos airport (now Tenerife Norte airport) on the island of Tenerife, an island in the Canarian archipelago of Spain. With a total of 583 deaths, this is the most tragic accident in the history of the aviation industry.

A bomb explosion at Gran Canaria airport and the threat of a second explosion caused many planes flying here to be diversioned to Los Rodeos airport. Among them are KLM flight 4805 and Pan Am flight 1736 - 2 planes in the accident. Because of the limited capacity of Los Rodeos airport, air traffic controllers were forced to ask the planes to park on the main taxiway. Another factor complicating the situation, while waiting for the authorities to reopen the Gran Canaria airport, dense fog appeared in Tenerife, significantly limiting visibility.

When Gran Canaria airport reopened, because the main taxiway was blocked by many planes, to take off, both 747s had to roll on the only runway to enter the take-off position. The fog was so dense that both planes could not see each other, and neither the air traffic controller could see the runway and the two 747s. Since the airport does not have a ground radar system, the only way for the controller to determine the location of each aircraft is through radio reporting from the cockpit of the two aircraft. Because of a few misunderstandings in communication later, the KLM flight had momentum to take off while the Pan Am flight was still on the runway. The collision then completely destroyed 2 planes, killing 248 people on the KLM flight and 335 out of 395 people on the Pan Am flight. Among the 61 survivors of the Pan Am flight were the captain, co-pilot and flight engineer of the flight.