A woman who survived the deadliest aircraft accident in history which killed 583 has recalled the harrowing ordeal.
On 27 March 1977 aviation history would change forever when two planes collided on the runway at Tenerife’s Los Rodeos Airport (now called Tenerife North) and killed 583 out of the 644 people onboard both aircraft.
Following a terrorist attack at an airport in Gran Canaria, all flights bound for the island were re-routed to the much smaller Los Rodeos – causing the airport to swiftly become overwhelmed.
The diversion, coupled with poor weather conditions and a miscommunication between air traffic control and the pilots of KLM Flight 4805, led to disaster when the KLM flight attempted to take off and subsequently slammed into the side of Pan Am Flight 1736 which had been travelling along the runway at the time.
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A devastating chain of events would lead to the crash (CBS / Youtube)
The collision would kill all 248 onboard the KLM while just 61 of the 396 passengers and crew on the Pan Am would survive. The crash remains the deadliest air accident in aviation history, with a final death toll of 583.
One of the 61 lucky souls to survive the crash onboard the Pan Am was Joani Feathers, who was travelling to the Canary Islands for a Mediterranean cruise with her boyfriend at the time.
Feathers recalled being anxious about the proximity of the KLM plane that afternoon, recalling in an interview with The Daytona Beach Journal how she voiced her concerns to then boyfriend Jack Ridout.
His response would be a chilling omen of what was to come.
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Joani Feathers and her boyfriend were among the 61 survivors (CBS/Youtube)
“Don’t worry. If he hits us, you won’t feel a thing,” he told her.
After declining an invitation to enjoy a drink in the upstairs lounge, Joani buckled her seatbelt and waited for the KLM to clear the runway.
Just moments later she would find herself sat in a cabin which had been torn apart by the KLM, with the upstairs bar they’d been invited to completely gone.
