Date in year · 1977 · The 1970s

March 27, 1977

On March 27, 1977, tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history. The year's #1 song was "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" by Rod Stewart. Vitor Belfort, Haimar Zubeldia, Ivonne Teichmann would arrive in the same year.

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1977

1970s

Featured · March 27, 1977

Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history.

On 27 March 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on a runway at Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife, killing 583 people and injuring 61 others in the deadliest accident in aviation history. The incident occurred at 17:06 GMT in dense fog, when KLM Flight 4805 initiated its takeoff run, colliding with the starboard side of Pan Am Flight 1736, which was on the runway. The impact and the resulting fire killed all 248 people on board the KLM plane and 335 of the 396 people on board the Pan Am plane, with all 61 survivors being in the front section of the aircraft.

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Around 1977

The year in brief

1977 (MCMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1977th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 977th year of the 2nd millennium, the 77th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1970s decade.

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What happened

On March 27, 1977

  1. 1977 Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history.

    1977 runway collision in Spain

    On 27 March 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on a runway at Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife, killing 583 people and injuring 61 others in the deadliest accident in aviation history. The incident occurred at 17:06 GMT in dense fog, when KLM Flight 4805 initiated its takeoff run, colliding with the starboard side of Pan Am Flight 1736, which was on the runway. The impact and the resulting fire killed all 248 people on board the KLM plane and 335 of the 396 people on board the Pan Am plane, with all 61 survivors being in the front section of the aircraft.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1977

The class of 1977

Others born in 1977

Vitor Belfort 1977– Brazilian-American boxer and mixed martial artist
Haimar Zubeldia 1977– Spanish cyclist
Ivonne Teichmann 1977– German runner
Margus Tsahkna 1977– Estonian lawyer and politician
Nate Fox 1977– American basketball player (died 2014)
Martin Kaalma 1977– Estonian footballer

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