HUMAN FACTORS: TENERIFE REVISITED

Abstract

This case study is a human factors analysis of the aircraft collision which occurred at the Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife, on the Canary Islands. The collision between two 747 jumbo jets cost the lives of 583 people. This collision is an example of how large scale disasters result from errors made by people in crucial circumstances and illustrates the potentially devastating consequences of ineffective human and organizational behavior. This paper focuses on three areas that were the major contributing factors in the accident: stress, small group communication under stress, and small group dynamics. An analysis of the accident in each of these areas determined what measures can be taken to prevent catastrophes of this nature from reoccurring (reengineering for improvement).