CAN FOG LEAD TO AVIATION ACCIDENTS?

The commercial aircraft of today are equipped with modern systems that can automatically land the plane, although pilots typically use automatic landings for less than 1% of flights. Monitoring the autopilot during a landing is highly demanding, so pilots usually decide that it’s easier to land the plane themselves. But autopilot is very useful when there is low visibility due to dense fog. This type of landing is called a CAT III approach because of the equipment that both the aircraft and the airport must have for a pilot to attempt an automatic landing. In theory, a CAT III-C landing can be made with zero visibility, however it is rarely done because the lack of visibility would prevent the aircraft from taxiing off the runway. The worst aircraft accident in history occurred on March 27, 1977, when two 747 jumbo jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The accident, which killed 583 people, occurred when a KLM airliner began taking off while a Pan Am airliner, shrouded in dense fog, was still on the runway. Pilot error was deemed to be at fault in this tragic case.