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Nine killed in Turkish Airlines crash near Amsterdam, causes unclear

Published: 25/02/2009 05:00

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Nine people were killed and more than 50 others were injured when a Turkish Airlines plane crashed while attempting to land at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Wednesday, airport officials said.

Rescue workers help passengers after a Turkish Airlines passenger plane crashed while attempting to land at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport Feb. 25, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

“There are nine victims to mourn and more than 50 injured,” Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of Haarlemmermeer, said at a press conference at the Schiphol airport near Amsterdam, adding that the cause of the accident was still unclear.

At least 25 of the injured were in serious condition and crew members were among the injured.

The Boeing 737-800, with 135 people aboard, split into three parts after slamming into a field next to a runway at around 10:40a.m. local time (0940 GMT).

No fire or explosion occurred due to low fuel in the tanks of the plane.

Dutch TV images showed police and rescue workers swarming around the wreckage of Flight TK1951. More than 50 ambulances rushed to the site, transporting injured survivors to nearby hospitals.

“It was very lucky. It’s unbelievable. If it had moved another 250 meters away, it would have hit the trees, the risk will have been much bigger,” a local official said.

Mirjam Snoerwang, spokeswoman for the Schiphol airport, told Xinhua that the plane crashed three to four miles from a north-south runway where the plane should have landed, adding that there were 128 passengers and seven crew members on board.

The plane, which was seven years old, left Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport at 8:22 a.m. local time (0622 GMT), and was due to land at10:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT). The plane appeared to have just missed the runway.

A survivor told Turkish NTV television that the passengers were in panic when the tragedy occurred.

“We could not understand what was happening, some passengers screamed in panic,” Huseyin Sumer said. He said the crash was over in five to 10 seconds.

Reports said that the fact that the plane landed in a muddy, plowed field may have contributed to making the accident less deadly by absorbing much of the force of the hard impact.

No fire also helped to reduce the casualties to a relatively low level, experts said.

The Turkish Transportation Ministry has set up a crisis desk to deal with the accident. Turkish Airlines sent a delegation to Amsterdam to deal with the accident.

The list of the dead and injured, whose nationalities were not yet known, may be released at another press conference scheduled for 4:00 p.m. local time (1500 GMT), Snoerwang said.

Relatives of the dead were taken to a reception center in the airport, she said.

All flights in and out of the Schiphol airport, which is Europe’s fifth-largest by passenger volume, were temporarily suspended after the crash.

Wednesday’s crash came weeks after a U.S. Continental Airlines plane crashed on Feb.12 in suburban Buffalo, New York, killing all49 people aboard the aircraft and one person on the ground.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet

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