Plane crashes on landing at Schiphol in Holland

by Sanjay Jha | February 25, 2009 at 02:24 am

2818 views | 46 Recommendations | 13 comments

Dutch media report that a Turkish plane crashed on landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and broke into three pieces. There were no deaths in the crash, according to Turkey's Transport Minister Binali Yildirim and Turkish Airlines chief executive Temel Kotil. But latest report on twitter says that at least 5 dead have been reported.Two runways have been reopened at Schiphol Airport after a passenger plane carrying more than 140 people crashed.

It is reported that a Turkish Airlines passenger plane with 135 people on board has crashed near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Eyewitnesses say it has come to a halt in a field next to the A9 motorway. It appears to have only just missed the landing runway.

The plane has broken in two, but is said not to be on fire. The emergency services are at the scene. As yet, there are no reports of casualties.

More updates. There are conflicting reports about casualties, NOS tv is reporting that about four motionless bodies have been carried out of the plane; 20 people are said to be injured. At least 50 people have escaped unharmed.

Eyewitnesses say it has come to a halt in a field next to the A9 motorway. It appears to have only just missed the landing runway. An off-duty pilot who saw the incident said the plane appeared to be making a controlled landing, having lost thrust from the engines. The Boeing 737-800 was three years old.

The plane has broken into three parts, but did not catch fire. The emergency services are at the scene. All flights to and from Schiphol have been suspended and the A9 around the airport has been closed. Many flights have been redirected to Rotterdam's Zestienhoven airport.

Air industry experts say that Turkish Airlines does not have a great safety record, but the company is not on the EU blacklist of unsafe operators.

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Sanjay Jha

flagged this story as Breaking

at 02:24 on February 25th, 2009

Sanjay Jha, thanks for getting this story out so quickly. It will now show up on the home page for four hours. If new developments justify it, I'll renew this flag for another cycle.

recommend This comment thread is now closed

KaushiK™

at 03:05 on February 25th, 2009

50 passengers escaped unhurt

Uwe Paschen

at 03:22 on February 25th, 2009

Thank you for bringing this out Sanjay Jha.

peter weij (not verified)

at 04:49 on February 25th, 2009

woohoo!

Vinny

at 04:51 on February 25th, 2009

There are unconfirmed reports of up to 7 people killed.

Martin Broertjes (not verified)

at 04:52 on February 25th, 2009

epic

jeroen de wit (not verified)

at 04:53 on February 25th, 2009

wat zijn ze drops ?

Fripouille

at 05:18 on February 25th, 2009

9 dead, 50 injured, 25 seriously. Liberation (in French) . Passengers said they had the impression the plane just "fell from the air" as it approached the runway....

Laughing-Samurai (not verified)

at 06:55 on February 25th, 2009

A Turkish Airlines plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a muddy field while attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport Wednesday. Nine people were killed and more than 50 were injured, many in serious condition, officials said.

The Boeing 737-800 fractured into three pieces on impact. The fuselage split in two, close to the cockpit, and the tail broke off. One engine lay almost intact near the wreck in the muddy field and the other was some 200 yards (meters) from the plane and heavily damaged, an Associated Press photographer at the scene said.

Flight TK1951 left Istanbul's Ataturk Airport at 8:22 a.m. (0622 GMT) bound for Amsterdam, then crashed next to a runway at Schiphol Airport.

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said it was "a miracle" there were not more casualties. "The fact that the plane landed on a soft surface and that there was no fire helped keep the number of fatalities low," he said.

Survivor Huseyin Sumer told private Turkish NTV television he crawled to safety out of a crack in the fuselage.

"We were about to land, we could not understand what was happening, some passengers screamed in panic but it happened so fast," Sumer said. He said the crash was over in 5 to 10 seconds.

The fact that the plane crash 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, experts said. It may also have helped avert a fire resulting from ruptured fuel tanks and lines on the underside of the fuselage, which appeared to have suffered very heavy impact damage.

Hours after the crash, emergency crews still swarmed around the plane's cockpit.

Fripouille

at 10:57 on February 25th, 2009

LS,

on the button, as usual...

Thanks

Jordan Yerman

at 07:10 on February 25th, 2009

Our feature channel has links to related stories and ongoing developments.

ÇAKIROGLU (not verified)

at 10:38 on February 25th, 2009

''astute to talk speak as for me so far good okay..Turkish state and the Netherlands State near Get well soon.. Sincerely

Albert Milliron

at 12:32 on February 25th, 2009

Sanjay:

I noticed now that you are world known you are wearing sun glasses LOL.

Well done

Dan Finnan

at 09:03 on February 26th, 2009

Here's an update on the investigation from Fred Sanders, Dutch Safety Board...

"They're investigating the crash site and the wreckage itself [...] the flight data and the cockpit voice recorder will be analysed.

From eyewitnesses, they say that the plane dropped almost vertically to the ground [...] which seems to be confirmed by the tracks in the field.

The engines did not do what they were supposed to, but how that happened, we don't know."