Nine dead in Amsterdam air crash

26 Feb 2009, 6:18 am   -   Source: AFP
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Nine people died and 25 are seriously injured after a Turkish Airlines plane crashed while attempting to land in Amsterdam.

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At least nine people were killed and more than 80 injured when a Turkish Airways plane broke in three as it crash-landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, officials and passengers said.

By evening, investigators said the process of identifying victims was underway some 10 hours after the Boeing 737-800 came down in fields about half a kilometre short of the runway, split in pieces and came to rest near homes next to the busy A9 freeway.

"We might be able to give more information tomorrow about the identities," Haarlemmermeer mayor Theo Weterings told a press conference at the airport near Amsterdam, the Dutch capital and largest city.

He confirmed the passengers were from Turkey, the Netherlands "and diverse other nationalities, but I cannot say more at this stage".

Officials in Turkey's transport ministry had said that around 56 foreigners and 78 Turkish nationals were on board the aircraft which left Istanbul at 08:22 am (0622 GMT) for Amsterdam with 127 passengers.

Shortly after the crash at 0931 GMT, ambulance and fire crews found themselves filling body bags at Europe's fifth busiest airport.

Weterings said the death toll was still at nine by Wednesday evening despite reports from Istanbul revising the figure upward to 10.

Six among the injured were critical.

One passenger told Turkish television that the plane's tail hit the edge of a nearby highway in the landing before crashing -- sending passing motorists and residents scurrying from their cars and homes and running across the fields to help.

"We were at an altitude of 600 metres (2000 feet) when we heard the announcement that we were landing," Kerem Uzel told the NTV news channel.

"We suddenly descended a great distance as if the plane fell into turbulence. The plane's tail hit the ground ...

It slid from the side of the motorway into the field." Tuncer Mutluhan, the representative of a private Turkish bank in the Netherlands, said the whole thing happened in a flash.

"While we were making a normal landing, it felt like we fell into a void, the plane lost control, suddenly plunged and crashed," he told NTV.

"It all happened in three or five seconds ... There was panic after that." Another survivor described the scene as "a bloodbath".

"Everyone was scared to death. People were trapped between seats. After the impact there were screams -- only then could you start checking if everything was intact.

I do not wish it on my worse enemy to experience something like that." Family members and friends gathered anxiously at the airport were taken to a nearby sports hall to wait for news and survivors.

The wounded were taken to about 11 different hospitals in eight towns.

Airport spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang said Turkish Airlines had sent a special flight to Schiphol, due to arrive Wednesday evening, for family members of passengers of the ill-fated Boeing.

According to Dutch television station NOS, some witnesses saw the plane gliding the final distance to impact without its engines, its tail angled towards the ground.

The engines were found some 100 metres from the rest of the wreck.

There was no fire and no smoke. "The tail dropped first, then the plane fell in three pieces," said one witness.

"About 15 people walked out of the wreckage almost immediately after impact."

Emergency services spokeswoman Ineke van der Zande told a press conference at the airport that six of the injured were in a serious condition, adding:"We cannot tell at this stage whether they will survive."

Twenty-five others were seriously wounded, 24 had light injuries, while the rest had yet to be assessed. Investigators said they had found the plane's black box but would not comment on the possible causes of the crash.

"We have just started our investigation, it will take some months at least before we have information about that," Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board that is leading the probe, told AFP.

Officials have not been able to confirm a statement from the Turkish transport ministry that the plane was making an emergency landing. Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings said Turkish Airlines had met all the security standards."

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