Well, I might not be a professional aviator, but I am Dutch, so I hope that gives me the right to reply
As an aviation enthusiast (M.Mouse may call me an armchair analyst...for now
) and ATC-wannabe (hopefully next year) I read the CVR-transcripts from
http://www.airdisaster.com/cvr/tenetr.shtml and I don’t quite agree with leftarmover when he says
It is this arrogance that "I can't be wrong because I am a Dutchman" which is extremely worrying in the aviation industry. Remember Tenerife North, the World's worst air accident pre-9/11 caused by the "arrogance of a Dutchman?" It is interesting to note that the Dutch STILL do not accept that Captain Jacob van Zanten was to blame for this terrible crash!
I am quite aware of the reputation of the Dutch outside the Netherlands, which is not quite good I fear (in contradiction to what most Dutchies think). Even though sometimes I am ashamed of the somewhat arrogant attitude of some of my fellow countrymen, I would like to comment that MOST of us are not like that
. Furthermore, I completely agree with his statement that any kind of arrogance as displayed here, is indeed very worrying. At the risk of stating the obvious: mistakes are made everywhere, but in this business, they can prove to be a little more lethal.
I would like to quote from an
article published in a Dutch newspaper, which is not quite exceptional, but it may show you the public view on that horrible crash in 1977. Actually, the article discusses another air crash, but I’ve copied the part where the writer makes a comparison with the 1977 crash.
[...]
Exact dezelfde factor, 'authority in the cockpit', leidde 27 maart 1977 op Tenerife mede tot de ernstigste ramp in de geschiedenis van de luchtvaart met 583 doden. Twee Boeing 747's klapten met grote snelheid op elkaar nadat de KLM gezagvoerder van het ene toestel voor zijn beurt met zijn aanloop was begonnen.
Onderzoekers concludeerden later dat gezagvoerder Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten waarschuwingen van zijn co-piloot dat hij in strijd met de regels zijn remmen losgooide, in de wind had geslagen. Hij reageerde evenmin op de vraag van de boordwerktuigkundige of de andere jumbo, een toestel van PanAm, al van de baan was. De gezagvoerder was een vooraanstaande piloot van de KLM en had een lange staat van dienst. De bemanning durfde hem kennelijk niet tegen te spreken, met fatale gevolgen.
Oh, sorry, for the people who don't speak dutch, let me translate
:
[...]
Exactly the same factor, ‘authority in the cockpit’, led to the worst disaster in aviation (this article is pre-9/11) history resulting in the death of 583 people. Two Boeing 747s collided with high speed, after the KLM captain had started his take-off roll before he was cleared.
Later on, investigators concluded that captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten disregarded his co-pilot's warnings that he was in violation of conduct when he started his take-off roll. Nor did he respond to the flight engineer's inquiry whether the other jumbo jet, a PanAm aircraft, had already departed the runway. The captain was a prominent pilot with a long service record. Apparently the crew did not dare question their captain, which led to fatal consequences.
As you can read in the CVR-transcript this is not
precisely how it happened; in response to the flight engineer's question, the captain responded with the answer the PanAm had already cleared the runway. But nevertheless, this excerpt from the article is quite accurate I think. So as you may see, I can't quite quite agree with leftarmover
.
But back on-topic: Nowhere in the Dutch media (or anywhere else, crash databases, etc) have I been able to find anything regarding this accident. From
aviation-safety.net it is to expected this accident is not yet listed, for the most recent accident in Italy in the database is in 2001, but from the Dutch media … ? I wonder where that fellow from Leiden got his information.