[Oshkalaboomboom]

There was also a terrorism scare at another airport which diverted dozens of planes to Tenerife. I've been to this airport and it's easy to see how the air traffic controllers got overwhelmed. The Tenerife Disaster

[Mark17]

Yes, there was that too. This airport was in no way geared for this. The controllers and the entire airport were at a disadvantage. Even with all the other factors, if the KLM had not taken off without a clearance, it still had a halfways decent chance of working out with no collision.