Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten

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.^[1] 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. That same month, he and two colleagues went to Seattle to take delivery of KLM’s first 747, christened the Mississippi (registration serial PH-BUA).^[1] At the time of the disaster, he had 11,700 flight hours (1,545 of which were on the Boeing 747).^[2] In addition to his duties as a regular airline pilot, he had been promoted to chief flight instructor for the Boeing 747.^[3] 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.^[4]

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".^[3]

Bartelski also noted that his personal experiences with Veldhuyzen van Zanten contradicted the claims of books and television programs about the Tenerife airport disaster that depicted Veldhuyzen van Zanten as an egotistical individual who intimidated crewmates with his authority and did not encourage collaboration between the captain and crewmates in the cockpit, the latter characteristic being based on accusations from Spanish investigators on the accident. Bartelski cited the transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder as evidence that Veldhuyzen van Zanten acknowledged the expertise of his own crewmates on the accident flight and specifically communicated with First Officer Klaas Meurs, who was familiar with the Canary Islands, for advice on navigating through Los Rodeos Airport.^[3]

Shortly before the Tenerife disaster, Veldhuyzen van Zanten was photographed for KLM's advertising campaign.^[5] 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.^[3]

When the news of the Tenerife disaster broke, the KLM executives tried contacting 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.^[6]

Veldhuyzen van Zanten lived in Sassenheim, Netherlands, with his wife and two children.^[7] He was a motorsport enthusiast who frequently visited Circuit Zandvoort and owned cars manufactured by BMW, Porsche, and Ferrari throughout his life.^[1]

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; causing 583 deaths, 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).

Veldhuyzen van Zanten was in command of KLM Flight 4805, a charter flight operated using a Boeing 747-206B aircraft. In heavy fog on the airport's only runway, he proceeded with takeoff due to a misunderstanding over the fact that he was only given ATC clearance and not takeoff clearance. The KLM aircraft collided with Pan Am Flight 1736, another charter flight operated by a Boeing 747, which was still in the process of backtaxiing in the opposite direction on the runway as per the directions of the airport's air traffic control. Veldhuyzen van Zanten might have been aware of the Pan Am 747 behind them, but might have believed that it had already cleared the runway due to an incorrect call sign being called out by the control tower to identify Flight 1736. The accident was caused by various factors, including confusion from a recent terrorist bombing in the area and abnormal operating conditions. Veldhuyzen van Zanten was impatient and concerned about new flight regulations limiting flight duty hours imposed on Dutch pilots. Standard procedure aboard flights at the time also had copilots defer to senior pilots regarding conflicting judgment calls, a practice that was changed following the disaster. The air traffic controllers also believed that the KLM 747 remained stationary on the runway as instructed, but they could not visually confirm due to limited visibility from the dense fog in the area.^[8]

Veldhuyzen van Zanten was buried with the rest of KLM Flight 4805's passengers and crew at Westgaarde Cemetery in Amsterdam. His name is written on a tombstone listing him as one of the aircraft's 62 occupants whose remains were never identified individually.^[7]

Veldhuyzen van Zanten was rated for the following aircraft:^[2]

• 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-English actor Michael Hofland portrayed Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten in the earlier in-depth 90-minute special "Crash of the Century" (2005). Footage of Hofland's performance were reused in the TV film "Tenerife" (2005), and the American TV series Nova Season 34: Episode 3 (2016) called "The Deadliest Plane Crash".