Capt. Grubbs after seeing rubble
‘ln my heart I knew that it wasn’t my fault’
SANTA CRUZ DE TENE
RIFE, Canary Islands (AP) —
Pan American hopes to start an
airlift to the United States Sat
urday with the bodies of its
passengers and crew members
killed in the runway collision at
the Santa Cruz airport four days
ago, a spokesman for the airline
said today.
Pan Aid's executive vice
president, W. H. Waltrip, said
special flights would begin as
soon as the airstrip is cleared of
the wreckage of the KLM and
Pan Am planes that collided in
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aviation’s worst disaster.
KLM Royal Dutch Airline
said it would begin flying its
victims to The Netherlands.
The bodies, most of them
badly charred, were in long
lines of wooden coffins in an
airport hangar while the work
of trying to identify them con
tinued. Officials from the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
were helping with the identi
fication of the Americans, but
officials said many of the dead
might not be identified until
after their bodies were exam
ined in the United States.
One of the investigators seek
ing the cause of the collision re
ported that the Spanish air con
trollers working at the time of
the crash followed proper
procedure and gave instruc
tions in correct English to the
two airliners.
The two controllers who were
on duty Sunday were inter
viewed Wednesday by Ameri
can and Dutch investigators.
Authorities said the cockpit
recorders from both of the
Boeing 747 jumbo jets were
being flown to Washington for
analysis in the presence of KLM
and Pan Am personnel who
could identify the voices.
William R. Haley, the chief
U.S. investigator, said the
recorders should show all con
versation among the flight
crews and between the planes
and the tower in the crucial
minutes before the collision that
killed 577 persons.
It was hoped that the tapes
could answer two big questions
about the crash — why the KLM
pilot began his takeoff run
without permission and whether
the Pan Am jet should have still
been on the runway when the
Dutch plane crashed into it.
The KLM pilot was Capt. Z.A.
Veldhuizen van Zanten, 51, one
of the airline’s most ex
perienced fliers, and KLM has
said it was “completely illogical
and unthinkable” that he would
take off without clearance.
But the chief Dutch investiga
tor, Franz van Rejsen, said the
control tower’s tape of its in-
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structions showed Van Zanten
did just that. Spanish officials
said the tower’s last instruc
tions to the KLM pilot were:
“Okay, stand by. I will call you
for takeoff.”
The Pan Am plane was still
taxiing up the main runway to
get into position for takeoff be
hind the KLM jet.
Van Rejsen maintained that
the Pan Am plane passed an
exit calledj>3 at which it had
been ordered to turn off onto a
parallel taxiway and was pro
ceeding to the next exit, C-4.
Americans say the Pan Am pi
lot was following instructions
and the C-3 exit was at an angle
impossible for a 747 to turn into.
The Pan Am jet, piloted by
Capt. Victor Grubbs of Center
port, N.Y., was just short of C-4
when the KLM jet began its
takeoff run. Grubbs tried to get
his plane off the runway, but the
Dutch jet smashed into it at a
45-degree angle.
Grubbs, 56, who was flown to
the United States Tuesday night
with other survivors, said in an
interview he heard the KLM pi
lot report he was taking off and
shouted into his microphone,
“Tell them not to take off. We’re
still on the runway!” But some
sources said his mike may have
been set for communication
within the plane since the
copilot usually communicates
with the tower.
“Looking back at the rubble, I
first thought to myself, ‘Look
what I’ve done to those people,”
said Grubbs in a hospital
interview with The Associated
Press. “But in my heart I knew
that it wasn’t my fault.”
Page 15
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FT. DIX, N.J.—Victor Grubbs, 56, of Centerport, N.Y., the pilot of the Pan American 747
that collided with a Dutch plane lays in his bed at Walston Hospital in Ft. Dlx, N.Y., Wed
nesday. Grubbs said in an interview “in my heart I knew that it wasn’t my fault.” (AP)
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, March 31,1977
