02/25/2009

Plane Down at Schiphol

Turkish Airlines Passenger Jet Crashes in Amsterdam

A passenger jet carrying 134 people crashed on approach to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday morning. Nine people died in the accident, according to local officials.

A passenger jet belonging to Turkish Airlines carrying 127 passengers and seven crew members has crashed on approach to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday morning. The plane reportedly broke into three pieces after slamming into a field a few kilometers short of the airport.

According to Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of the town of Haarlemmermeer near the crash site, nine people died in the accident and more than 84 were injured, 6 severely. Previously, Turkish Airlines Chief Executive Temel Kotil had said that nobody on board the flight died in the crash.

A number of passengers survived the crash unscathed, walking onto buses sent to the site. "We are in the middle of a field now, approximately five to six kilometers from the airport," one crash survivor told Turkey's Channel 24, according to Reuters. "The majority of the passengers are injured, but there are people who are not injured. Around 30 ambulances have come."

The plane was bound for Amsterdam from Istanbul, where it left at 8:22 a.m. Bezuijen told a news conference that there was no immediate word on the cause of the crash. Weather was slightly misty and there was little wind. The Boeing 737-800 did not catch fire after going down.

In addition to dozens of ambulances, helicopters were likewise on the scene to transport seriously injured passengers to area hospitals. Local farmers also drove their tractors to the scene to help transport the wounded through the muddy fields to waiting vehicles. The field was strewn with bits of wreckage and luggage. Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said the plane, built in 2003, underwent its last routine maintenance in late December.

The last deadly crash involving a Turkish Airlines plane occurred on Jan. 8, 2003 in Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey. Seventy-five people died when a commuter jet missed the runway in thick fog.

For additional coverage of the Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crash in English, visit our partner site NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands.

cgh -- with wire reports

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