The extremely thorough folks over at Nova recently produced a startling program called The Deadliest Plane Crash. I know the title sounds like something that you might see late at night on FX, but it’s actually not hyperbole.

From their site:

On March 27, 1977, on the island of Tenerife, two fully loaded 747 jumbo jets collided on a fog-blanketed runway, claiming the lives of 583 people in what is still the deadliest crash in aviation history. Now, almost 30 years later, near misses on the ground are the leading cause of aviation accidents, raising the question of what can be done to improve runway safety. Featuring moving interviews with the few survivors of the disaster and with top accident investigators, this program examines the fateful confluence of events that led to the Tenerife tragedy and its continuing relevance for air travel today.

The series of events that had to take place for the accident to happen is as amazing as the crash itself is horrifying. As interesting as all of this is, my wife and I had an even further interest in the show. Her grandfather, Robert Carver North, was supposed to be on that flight.