Gran Canaria Airport: Difference between revisions

At 1:15 PM on 27 March 1977, a bomb planted by the [[MPAIAC|Movement for the Independence and Autonomy of the Canaries Archipelago (MPAIAC)]] exploded in a florist's shop on the terminal concourse. Ten minutes' warning was given to the airport authorities,<ref>"Crash of the Century". Cineflix Productions.</ref> who started to evacuate the building; the inside of the terminal was damaged and eight people were injured, one seriously. A later telephone call claimed responsibility for the explosion and hinted that a second bomb had been planted somewhere in the terminal building; the airport was closed and searched, necessitating the diversion of several incoming flights, including a number of large aircraft on long international flights, to Los Rodeos airport (later named [[Tenerife North Airport]]) on the nearby island of [[Tenerife]]. The resulting runway congestion on the small regional airport was a factor in the [[Tenerife airport disaster|subsequent disaster]] at Los Rodeos, when just after 5pm two [[Boeing 747]]s originally bound for Gran Canaria collided on the Los Rodeos runway, resulting in 583 deaths, the worst aviation accident in history.