Global General
Family members visit Libya crash survivor
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-13 21:44
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 A frame grab shows a Dutch boy, the lone survivor of the Afriqiyah airline flight 8U771 crash at Tripoli airport, being treated in a hospital in Tripoli May 12, 2010. [Agencies] |
TRIPOLI, Libya - Hopeful family members rushed to a Libyan hospital Thursday to reunite with the Dutch boy who was the only survivor of a plane crash that killed 103 people and doctors said the 9-year-old was out of danger after surgery on his shattered legs.
An unnamed spokeswoman from the Dutch Embassy in Tripoli told Dutch state broadcaster NOS that the boy immediately recognized his relatives when they came in to see him, and smiled at them.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry said the boy had told an embassy official his name is Ruben, he is 9 years old and he is from the southern city of Tilburg in the Netherlands.
The Libyan plane was arriving from South Africa Wednesday when it crashed minutes before landing at the airport in Libya's capital Tripoli.
Dr. Hameeda al-Saheli, the head of the pediatric unit at the Libyan hospital where the boy is being treated, said he is breathing normally and his vital organs are intact. She told the official Libyan news agency he suffered four fractures in his legs and lost a lot of blood, but his neck, skull and brain were not affected and he did not suffer internal bleeding.
"As soon as his health permits he will be brought to the Netherlands," the Dutch Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Officials at al-Khadra hospital said three Westerners visiting the boy Thursday were his relatives. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said the boy's aunt and uncle were in Tripoli. The hospital officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
Libyan television showed images on Wednesday of the boy laying on a hospital bed after the crash, breathing through an oxygen mask with his head bandaged and face bruised and swollen.
The Dutch daily Brabants Dagblad quotes a woman named An van de Sande as saying her grandson Ruben was in South Africa on safari with his brother and parents. However, she said relatives who had seen TV footage of the boy in the hospital were reluctant to confirm his identity.
The newspaper identified the boy as Ruben van Assouw from Tilburg.
The Airbus A330-200 was completing a more than seven-hour flight across the African continent from Johannesburg when it crashed. About half of the crash victims were Dutch tourists who had been vacationing in South Africa.
