Today In History: Great balls of fire.

On this date in 1977 a KLM 747 commenced its takeoff roll at Tenerife airport. Unfortunately, due to miscommunication and severe fog, a Pan Am 747 was taxiing the other way on the same runway. The result was the Tenerife Disaster, the largest loss of life in a single commercial airline incident to date. As a matter of fact, until an A380 in cattle-car configuration suffers a premature air/ground interface, it's pretty much got the lock on the gruesome record.