Jacob Veldhuyzen Van Zanten

He was captain of the KLM Flight 4805 and died in the Tenerife airport disaster, the deadliest accident in aviation history. He was KLM's chief instructor and commonly appeared on advertising.

Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten
Born	5 February 1927 Lisse, Netherlands
Died	27 March 1977(1977-03-27) (aged 50) Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Cause of death	Plane crash
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	KLM
Occupation	Pilot
Years active	1950–1977
Known for	KLM's chief instructor, Tenerife airport disaster
Spouse	Henriëtte Veldhuyzen van Zanten-Segers (b. 1926)
Children	2

Born in Lisse, Netherlands, Veldhuyzen van Zanten obtained his private pilot's licence on 21 June 1947, and his commercial pilot's licence on 18 April 1950. That year, he began working for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as a flight director, and in 1951, he commenced duty as a first officer on the Douglas DC-3. He then obtained his Flight Radio Telephone Operator's Licence on 22 September 1952, Airline Transport Pilot's Licence on 19 October 1956, and Flight Navigator's Licence on 6 August 1963.

 

On 23 January 1971, Veldhuyzen van Zanten was type-rated on the Boeing 747. Later that year, he and two colleagues went to Seattle to take delivery of KLM’s first 747, the Mississippi (registered PH-BUA). At the time of the disaster, he had 11,700 flight hours (1,545 of which were on the Boeing 747). In addition to his duties as a regular airline pilot, he had been promoted to chief flight instructor for the Boeing 747. At the time of his death, he was in charge of training all of KLM's pilots on this type of aircraft and the head of KLM's flight training department.

Jan Bartelski, a KLM captain until 1978 and later president of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, was a contemporary of Veldhuyzen van Zanten and knew him personally. In his book Disasters In The Air, he describes Veldhuyzen van Zanten as:

a serious and introverted individual but with an open-hearted and friendly disposition. He was a studious type and regarded as the company’s pilot expert on the Boeing 747 systems.

And adds that:

He believed in partnership, to the extent that he insisted on his first officers addressing him during flight as "Jaap" and not "Captain Van Zanten".

Shortly before the Tenerife airport disaster, in which he was involved, Veldhuyzen van Zanten was photographed for KLM's advertising campaign. While this has been attributed to his high position within KLM, Jan Bartelski argues that Veldhuyzen van Zanten was photographed simply because he was the only captain available (due to his responsibilities as a flight instructor) to KLM public relations, as others were away flying.

When the news of the Tenerife disaster broke, the KLM executives looked for Veldhuyzen van Zanten to aid their investigation team, only to realize that he was the captain of the flight involved in the accident and had died in it.

Veldhuyzen van Zanten lived in Sassenheim, Netherlands, with his wife and two children.

 

The Tenerife airport disaster on 27 March 1977 was the collision of two Boeing 747 passenger aircraft on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) in Tenerife, Spain; killing 583 people, the crash is the deadliest accident in aviation history. All 248 passengers and crew aboard KLM flight 4805, including Veldhuyzen van Zanten, were killed in the accident, as were 335 on Pan Am flight 1736 (61 survived).

In heavy fog on the airport's only runway, Veldhuyzen van Zanten, piloting flight KLM 4805, "was mistakenly cleared for takeoff from the runway by the ATC, while PAM 1736, still unaware of the situation, received a taxi instruction that could be interpreted as clearance to enter the runway." Flight KLM 4805 collided with PAM 1736, which was backtaxiing in the opposite direction under the direction of air traffic control. The KLM's flight crew had been aware of the Pan Am behind them, but believed that it had already cleared the runway due to abnormal call signs being used by the control tower to identify PAM 1736. The disaster was the result of a number of factors, including confusion caused by a recent terrorist bombing in the area caused abnormal operating conditions. Zanten was impatient and concerned about new flight regulations limiting how many hours he could fly. Standard procedure aboard flights at the time had copilots defer to senior pilots regarding conflicting judgment calls (this was changed following the disaster). And the Control Tower believed that the KLM 747 remained stationary on the runway as instructed, but could not confirm visually due to dense fog in the area.

Veldhuyzen van Zanten was rated for the following aircraft:

• Douglas DC-3 from 28 September 1951 to 20 June 1962
• Convair CV240/340 from 23 August 1952 to 20 June 1962
• Lockheed Constellation from 1 October 1952 to 20 June 1962
• Douglas DC-6 from 12 February 1957 to 20 June 1962
• Douglas DC-7C from 6 June 1957 to 20 June 1962
• Vickers Viscount 803 from 11 June 1959 to 21 July 1967
• Douglas DC-9 from 16 March 1967 to 9 June 1971
• Boeing 747 from 23 January 1971 to 27 March 1977

• Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten appeared in the documentary Seconds from Disaster Season 1: Episode 12 (2004) called "Collision on the Runway".
• American actor Kevin Hare portrayed Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten in the Canadian TV series Mayday Season 16: Episode 3 (2016) called "Disaster at Tenerife", Air Crash Investigation Special Report Season 1: Episode 1 (2018) called "Communication Breakdown" and Dutch actor Michael Hofland portrayed Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten in the earlier in-depth 90-minute special "Crash of the Century" (2005).
• Dutch actor Michael Hofland portrayed Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten in the TV film "Tenerife" (2005).
• Dutch actor Michael Hofland portrayed Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten in the American TV series Nova Season 34: Episode 3 (2016) called "The Deadliest Plane Crash".