9 dead in Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam

 

AMSTERDAM -- 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.

Rescue workers help passengers after a Turkish Airlines passenger plane crashed while attempting to land at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport February 25, 2009. [Agencies]

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.

At first, the airline said everyone survived. But at a news conference later, Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of Haarlemmermeer, reported the fatalities.

"At this moment there are nine victims to mourn and more than 50 injured," he said. At least 25 of the injured were in serious condition and crew members were among the injured.

He said there was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.

The Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands, Selahattin Alpar, told the Anatolia news agency there were 72 Turks and 32 Dutch people on board. There was no information on the nationality of other passengers.