Disasters in Tenerife

John Sharples · 05-11-09, 18:03

The recent disaster in Los Gigantes prompted me search for other disastrous happenings on our beloved Island. There a quite a few listed here ...

January 1957 Windstorm kills 26 people on Tenerife.

3 December 1972 Airplane crash on Tenerife kills 155 people when the pilot loses control on take-off.

27 March 1977 Two 747s collide on a Tenerife runway killing 562 or 583 people (depending on the source) and injuring between 60 and 64 people (depending on the source).

25 April 1980 Airplane crash kills 146 people when their plane crashes into a mountain approaching Tenerife.

18 January 1999 Windstorm causes extensive damage on Tenerife, killing at least four people.

26 July 1999 Up to 13 illegal immigrants drown off the coast of Fuerteventura after their boat capsizes.

22 November 2001 Floods across the Canary Islands kill at least 7 people and affect several hundred.

31 March 2002 Flash floods on Tenerife kill at least 5 people and possibly as many as 8.

December 2003 to August 2004 At least 68 illegal immigrants drown off the coast of Fuerteventura trying to reach the Canaries.

Mid-May 2004 Five successive low-intensity earthquakes in the area between Mount Teide and Santiago del Teide.

November 2004 Millions of locusts swarm over Fuerteventura, although they are near the end of their life cycle. 1,500 litres of insecticide are sprayed over Lanzarote to prevent a similar invasion, although that action could lead to a worse disaster than the locusts through health and environmental impacts.

23 December 2004 At least 13 African immigrants die of hypothermia trying to reach the Canary Islands in a boat. About 30 survive.

October 2009 Collapse of Cliffs onto Beach at Los Gigantes claims lives.

otyikondo · 05-11-09, 18:57

Well, of course, taking a Guanche perspective...

1402: Arrival of Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle to the island of Lanzarote. This should have been a dire warning to the Tenerife crowd, and it was...

But even so...

November 14-15, 1494: Battle of Aguere - pretty frigging disastrous if you were Guanche.

December 25, 1494: (Christmas Day - nice) Second Battle of Acentejo. Game Over.

Night-night, natives. It's the great nations of Europe... comin' thru.

CornflakeGirl · 05-11-09, 20:54

what about tropical storm delta a few years ago - nov. 2005? didn't that kill a couple of people across the islands, too?

sunny · 05-11-09, 21:37

Crikey yes I remember that one, it blew up really bad and Dave and I stupidly went to stand out the balcony (in Palm Mar) to watch, then got stuck out there for ages as the hurricane was so bad we could not get the door open to get in, there was lots of destruction in other areas.