Summary of the means used to positively identify the American victims in the Canary Islands crash.

ABSTRACT

On board the Pan American aircraft, 326 were killed as a result of the collision with the KLM aircraft at Santa Cruz de Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands on 27 March, 1977. Of the remains returned to the United States, 212 were identified as Americans from the Pan Am, four from the KLm aircraft. Dental comparison provided the principal means of identification, especially ante- and post-mortem radiographs. Medical X-rays were extremely useful and provided the next most frequently used means of identification. Fingerprints, medical finding, and personal effects were also used, but less extensively than might be expected. The severe charring and the inability to prove conclusively to whom many of the personal effects belonged accounted for these differences. The use of medical X-rays for identification was possible in large part because many of the passengers were older and had numerous antemortem X-rays available for comparison.