The fog was dense and visibility well below minima for the aeroplanes to be allowed to land. It was however not worse than they would be allowed to take off if the pilots could see seven lights along the runway.

A McDonnel Douglas DC 9 belonging to Finnair got permission to taxi out to the runway and hold position. Before the control tower could issue clearance for takeoff the air traffic controller asked how many lights the pilots could see and got the answer “Seven.” The controller gave start clearance and the DC 9 rumbled down the runway and disappeared up in the fog with the landing gears folding up into the fuselage. A voice with classic Finnish accent came over the radio:

“Tre to the right and four to the left.”