The Tenerife disaster took place on March 27, 1977 at 17:06:56 local time (also UTC) when two Boeing 747 airliners collided at Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. Five hundred and eighty-three people were killed, the highest number of fatalities (excluding ground fatalities) of any single accident in aviation history. The aircraft involved were the 747s of Pan American World Airways Flight 1736 (the Clipper Victor) under the command of Captain Victor Grubbs, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 4805 (the Rijn) under the command of Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten. Taking off on the only runway of the airport, the KLM flight crashed into the Pan Am aircraft taxiing in the opposite direction on the same runway. The former Los Rodeos Airport (TCI), now Tenerife North Airport (TFN), is situated in the northern part of Tenerife and is now used mainly for flights within the Canary Islands and to and from the Spanish mainland.

The Tenerife disaster took place on March 27, 1977 at 17:06:56 local time (also UTC) when two Boeing 747 airliners collided at Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. Five hundred and eighty-three people were killed, the highest number of fatalities (excluding ground fatalities) of any single accident in aviation history. The aircraft involved were the 747s of Pan American World Airways Flight 1736 (the Clipper Victor) under the command of Captain Victor Grubbs, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 4805 (the Rijn) under the command of Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten. Taking off on the only runway of the airport, the KLM flight crashed into the Pan Am aircraft taxiing in the opposite direction on the same runway. The former Los Rodeos Airport (TCI), now Tenerife North Airport (TFN), is situated in the northern part of Tenerife and is now used mainly for flights within the Canary Islands and to and from the Spanish mainland.