Turkish jet crash kills nine in Amsterdam
TURKY: A Turkish Airways jet crashed into a muddy field as it
came in to land at Amsterdam airport Wednesday killing at least nine
people but officials said it was a “miracle” there were not more
victims.
Witnesses described seeing the tail of the Boeing 737-800 hit the
edge of a busy road in light fog and drag along the ground before the
twin-engine airliner broke into three just short of the Schiphol airport
runway.
More than 80 people were injured, with six in critical condition in
hospital and another 25 “seriously” wounded, Dutch authorities said. The
bodies of the dead were taken to an airport morgue.
While many among the 127 passengers and seven crew on the flight from
Istanbul fought their way out of the mess of tangled wreckage, local
residents and car drivers rushed to the scene.
About 40 passengers quickly escaped through a hole in the cabin
caused by a wing that was ripped off, one witness told Dutch television
channel NOS.
“The chance of survival in plane accidents is close to zero. And this
is a miracle,” Turkey’s Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said of the
death toll, Anatolia news agency reported.
Tuncer Mutluhan, a representative for a Turkish bank in the
Netherlands, said everything happened in a flash as the jet approached
Schiphol on Wednesday morning after a three-hour flight.
“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
Turkish television channel NTV.
“It all happened in three or five seconds ... There was panic after
that.”
About 750 ambulance and fire crew took part in the rescue operation
that was quickly set underway. The injured were taken to about 11
different hospitals in the region.
Bodies were at first laid out under white sheets next to the
wreckage.
Authorities were identifying the dead late Wednesday, but officials
confirmed that three of those killed were crew in the cockpit of flight
TK 1951 at the time of the crash.
According to rescue officials, six of the injured were in critical
condition. “We cannot tell at this stage whether they will survive,”
said emergency services spokeswoman Ineke van der Zande.
The Turkish transport ministry said the flight carried 78 Turkish
nationals and 56 people of other nationalities.
Amsterdam, Thursday, AFP
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