Probable Cause – Probable Cause – Human Factor

“The series follows air safety investigators as they discover what really happened, what was learned and what lessons have been applied to make the skies safer for all of us. Their worldwide search for what happened and why, is both painstaking and precise. They deal with a lot of factors – weather, design flaws, and mechanical failure and human error. Episode One looks at ‘The Human Factor’ in regard to the worst plane crash in history, when two fully laden passenger jumbos collided on the runway at Tenerife in 1977. It also examines the mid-air collision over San Diego in 1978 between a Boeing 727 and a Cessna light aircraft. We are at once fascinated by and fearful of what happened and why. The crash itself — frontpage news. But what about the investigation? That’s what this program is all about. The accident investigators. Their search for what happened and why, is both painstaking and precise. They have to deal with a lot of factors — weather, design flaws or mechanical failure. But we’re also going to look at the most perplexing factor of all — the human factor. March 27, 1977. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight 4805, inbound from Amsterdam, and Pan Am flight 1736 were heading to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. A bomb exploded at the airport in Las Palmas and all flights were diverted to the tiny airport on the neighboring island of Tenerife. There, the two Jumbo Jets sat in a long line of planes, waiting to take off. When they got the okay, something went <b>…</b>

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