KLM plane crashes

The following are significant events involving the airline or its subsidiares. The numbered events are those involving at least one airline passenger death where the aircraft flight had a direct or indirect role, and where at least one of the dead passengers was not a stowaway, hijacker, or saboteur. Only events since 1970 are included.

  1. 27 March 1977; KLM 747-200 and Pan Am 747-100; flight 4805; Tenerife, Canary Islands: The aircraft had been on a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to the Las Palmas airport in the Canary Islands, but had been diverted to Tererife because of a bomb explostion in the passenger terminal in Las Palmas. On the accident flight, it was operating as a nonscheduled domestic flight between Tenerife and Las Palmas, Spain. Because of limited visibility and communications difficulties between air traffic control and the KLM aircraft, the KLM 747 started its takeoff while the Pan Am aircraft was on the same runway. All 234 passengers and 14 crew were killed in the KLM 747. Nine of the 16 crew and 321 of the 380 passengers on the Pan Am flight were killed.
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    Boeing 747 plane crashes

  2. 6 October 1981; NLM CityHopper F28-4000; flight 431; Moerdijk, Netherlands: The aircraft was on a scheduled domestic flight from Rotterdam to Eindhoven, Netherlands. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft entered an area of severe thunderstorm activity. The aircraft apparently had a catastrophic in flight structural failure due to an encounter with a tornado. It was seen to emerge from the clouds with its right wing broken away. All four crew members and 13 passengers were killed.
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    Fokker F28 plane crashes

    15 December 1989; KLM 747-400; flight 867; near Anchorage, Alaska: The aircraft had been on a scheduled international flight from Amsterdam to Anchorage, Alaska. While over Alaska, the aircraft flew though a cloud of volcanic ash from Mount Redoubt (about 150 miles from the aircraft's position), and engine damage caused by ash ingestion led to a shutdown of all four engines. After about five minutes, the crew was able to restart the engines and safely land the plane. All four engines had to be replaced. None of the 14 crew and 231 passengers were injured. This was not a fatal event as defined by AirSafe.com but is included because of the impact that this event had on shaping volcanic ash encounter procedures for the aviation industry.
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    US Geological Survey Report on Volcanic Ash Issues
    Boeing 747 plane crashes

  3. 4 April 1994; KLM Cityhopper Saab 340; flight 433; Amsterdam, Netherlands: The aircraft was on a scheduled international flight from Amsterdam to Cardiff, United Kingdom. About 20 minutes after departure, the crew initiated an air turn back due to an engine problem. Just before landing, the crew abandoned the landing, then for unknown reasons lost control and crashed near the runway. One of the three crew members and two of the 21 passengers were killed.
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    Saab 340 plane crashes


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KLM plane crashes
http://airsafe.com/events/airlines/klm.htm -- Revised: 27 January 2017