MPAIAC Bombing and Tenerife Disaster
- See also Tenerife airport disaster
At 1:15 PM on 27 March 1977, a bomb planted by the Movement for the Independence and Autonomy of the Canaries Archipelago (MPAIAC) exploded in a florist's shop on the terminal concourse. Airport authorities had been warned of the blast 10 minutes before, so although the bomb damaged the inside of the terminal, the building was being evacuated at the time and there were no fatalities. However, eight people were injured, one seriously. Later, another telephone call was received claiming responsibility for the explosion and hinting that a second bomb was planted somewhere in the terminal building. The civil aviation authorities closed the airport pending a thorough search for the second bomb. The closure necessitated the diversion of several incoming flights, including a number of large aircraft on long international flights, to Los Rodeos airport on the nearby island of Tenerife (Los Rodeos is now known as Tenerife North Airport). The resulting runway congestion on the small regional airport was a factor in the subsequent disaster at Los Rodeos, when just after 5pm local time two Boeing 747s originally bound for Gran Canaria collided on the Los Rodeos runway, resulting in 583 deaths, the worst aviation accident in history.
Read more about this topic: Gran Canaria Airport
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