The Aviation Disaster That Changed Communication Forever ..

[00:00:00]The tragedy of Tenerife wasn't silence.

[00:00:04]March 27, 1977.

[00:00:06]A fog-covered runway in Tenerife, Canary Islands, in Spain. Two Boeing 747 aircrafts and nearly 600 passengers.

[00:00:15]A KLM captain believes that he's clear to take off.

[00:00:19]The control tower believes he's waiting for clearance and clears another 747 to land.

[00:00:25]Neither side believes there is a misunderstanding.

[00:00:29]Nobody thinks another question is necessary. Everyone believes they are operating on the same reality. But, they are not. Seconds later, two aircrafts collide.

[00:00:43]583 people lose their lives.

[00:00:47]It was not that people were not communicating. They were actively involved, but developed different interpretation of the same signal.

[00:00:55]Because in aviation, clarity is never assumed. It's actively confirmed.

[00:01:00]Maybe our teams need to learn the same lesson.