After striking the Pan Am jet, 4508's landing gear sheared off. Information from flight data recorders (also called "the black box") tell what happened next.
The KLM 747 dropped back to the runway about 500 feet from impact and skidded another 1,000 feet, sliding to the right and rotating clockwise 90 degrees. As soon as it stopped, a violent fire engulfed the whole wreckage. No one escaped the burning plane.
Seventy people were able to jump from the stricken Pan Am plane, although 9 later died.
When tower personnel heard the explosion, they thought terrorists had blown up a fuel truck. Not until they received reports of fire on the airport did they realize the explosion must have been from a plane.
Fire and rescue personnel had difficulty making their way through the congested, foggy airport. After they found the KLM plane completely engulfed in flames, rescue workers noticed another fire down the runway. They believed they saw burning parts from the same plane. Not until fire personnel reached the Pan Am plane did they realize the magnitude of the disaster. The inferno was not completely extinguished until the next day.
The Tenerife crash still stands as the world’s worst aviation disaster. Five hundred eighty-three (583) people died. Seven of the 16 Pan Am crew survived, including Captain Grubbs.
The Spanish government found that Captain van Zanten was responsible. The Dutch investigation also assigned responsibility to Tenerife’s controllers. The official Spanish investigation also reports that:
It was not possible to perform autopsies on the members of the KLM crew on account of the state of the bodies.
Captain van Zanten’s scream was the last thing recorded on 4508's voice recorder. All of the KLM evacuation doors remained sealed. A likely explanation? There was either no time to attempt escape or no possibility to even try.