Deadliest aviation accident

 Spain has its fair share of Separatists movements. Catalonia and the Basque region comes to mind when talking bout this, but what doesn’t get talked about much is the Canary Islands wanting to secede as well.

  The Islands have been in Spanish hands since the Castilians took them in the 1400s. Geographically, however, the islands are much closer to mainland Africa than it is to the Iberian Peninsula. Coupled with a slave-filled history, it is no surprise that the islanders would want to get rid of their Spanish Overlords. In the late 70s, the movement for Canarian independence turned violent. On March 27, 1977, The Canary Islands Independence Movement, an organization that resorted to violent means to further its agenda, attacked a flower shop in the main airport of the Islands at Gran Canaria.  The attack injured 8 people, and with threats of a second bomb, forced the relatively busy airport to close. All incoming flights had to be redirected, with a number heading to the nearby Tenerife airport, which was a significant downgrade in terms of facilities. The separatists didn’t know it at the time, but the bomb they planted had dire consequences for the passengers of 2 747s that were en route to the islands.  Due to the poor conditions at Tenerife, a Pan Am 747 missed a turn towards a taxiway and collided with a KLM 747 that began taking off without proper clearance.  The end result was over 500 casualties, the deadliest aviation accident in history.