25 FEB 2009 _______________________________________ *9 dead in Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam *Nine killed as Turkish plane crashes near Amsterdam airport *Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam *Accident description *************************************** 9 dead in Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam AP – A Turkish Airlines aircraft is seen after it slammed into a field while attempting to land at Amsterdam's … AMSTERDAM – A Turkish Airlines plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a field while attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring more than 50, the area's acting mayor said. The aircraft fractured into three pieces on impact. The fuselage split in two, close to the cockpit, and the tail broke off. One engine was visible lying almost intact near the wreck in the muddy field and the other was some 200 yards (200 meters) from the plane and heavily damaged, an Associated Press photographer at the scene said. The airline had said at first that 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 a serious condition and that the injured included crew members and passengers alike. He said there was no immediate word on the cause of the crash. Candan Karlitekin, the head of the airline's board of directors, told reporters in Turkey that visibility was good at the time of landing. "Visibility was clear and around 5,000 yards (4,500 meters). Some 550 yards (500 meters) before landing; the plane landed on a field instead of the runway," he said. "We have checked the plane's documents and there is no problem concerning maintenance," he added. Turkish Airlines head Temel Kotil said the captain, Hasan Tahsin, is very experienced and a former air force pilot. Gideon Evers, spokesman of the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations, said the cause remained unclear. "Certainly it appears to be an unusual circumstance, but as always the sensible course of action is to wait for the results of the investigation into the causes leading up to the accident," he said. There was no indication that the crash had anything to do with the fuel level, Evers said, adding that regulations require all commercial flights to carry ample reserves. According to mandatory limits, a passenger airliner must carry sufficient fuel to get to its destination, remain in holding patterns for 45 minutes, possibly divert to an alternate airport, hold for another 45 minutes, and then carry out a normal approach. The fact that the plane crash landed in a muddy, plowed field may have contributed to making the accident less deadly, experts said, by absorbing much of the force of the hard impact. 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. The initial impact with the ground appeared to have sheared off the hot engines, which could have ignited leaking fuel, and the loose soil would have absorbed it — further decreasing the risk of fire. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090225/ap_on_re_eu/eu_netherlands_plane_crash ************** Nine killed as Turkish plane crashes near Amsterdam airport (CNN) -- A Turkish passenger jet crashed as it tried to land at Amsterdam's main airport Wednesday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 50 -- 25 seriously -- Dutch airport authorities have said. The injured included both crew and passengers, said Assistant Local Mayor Michel Bezuijen. It is too early to determine the cause of the crash, Bezuijen said. A news photographer at the scene said he saw an unknown number of bodies lying under a white blanket, Maaike Voersma, a journalist with Dutch newspaper De Bers, told CNN. A passenger on the plane who spoke to Turkish network DHA said he saw injured people trapped and squeezed between the seats when he walked off the plane. iReport: Send your videos, stories The Boeing 737-800, which originated from Istanbul, Turkey, was trying to land at Schiphol when it went down at about 10:40 a.m. local time, Dutch airport officials said. Pictures from the scene showed the plane broken in three pieces. One tear was in front of the wing, splitting the "Turkish" logo in two, and a larger tear was farther back along he fuselage. See where the plane crashed » Most of the injured were seated toward the back of the plane, which sustained the most damage, a passenger on the plane told Turkish station NTV. Many of the passengers simply walked off the plane through the cracks in the fuselage, witnesses told NTV. Watch reports on Turkish plane crash » Images from the scene showed medics treating passengers on the ground next to the buckled hulk of the plane, while firefighters and police examined the aircraft. See rescuers attend the crash scene » Emergency exits were wide open and there was no signs of fire damage to the fuselage. Also visible was one of the aircraft's engines, apparently separated from the shattered remains of one of the wings. The plane landed in a flat farmer's field near the airport, RTL journalist Greg Crouch told CNN. He said the weather at the time was partly sunny with no wind or rain. Witnesses said they saw the nose of the plane pitch up suddenly before the crash, Crouch said. A bank manager who was a passenger on the plane told NTV that there were no emergency announcements. The crew's last word to the cabin was an announcement to fasten seatbelts and prepare for landing, the bank manager said. He said he felt the pilot giving more power to the engines before feeling "turbulence," then a sudden drop. He described the crash as similar to a sudden impact that was over in a matter of seconds. Kieran Daly, of Air Transport Intelligence said the impact had been severe but it could have been survivable because of the lack of fire. He added that there had been vast improvements in the materials used to build airplanes, meaning they did not burn as easily. Watch aviation expert comment on Amsterdam crash » Daly also said that the Boeing 737-800 is a reliable aircraft that has been successful and safe in service. "They really are pretty much state-of-the-art airliners with every imaginable technical benefit the industry has come up with over the years," Daly told CNN. "You would be optimistic that they would be quite survivable in an accident." Daly said the Turkish aviation industry has a "pretty good record" of safety, and that Turkish Airlines, the national carrier, has a "very good record." Turkish Airlines said it has 52 Boeing 737-800s in its fleet. They can carry as many as 165 passengers each, the airline said. The airline's last accident was of a small commuter jet in 2003, he said. It was a fatal crash that happened at a remote airfield in eastern Turkey, he said. "Their mainline operation is safe," Daly said. "Their pilots are well thought of." The last accident at Schiphol Airport happened in December 2003 when an EasyJet flight carrying 103 passengers to London collided while with a lamppost while taxiing during icy conditions, according to Aviation Safety Network's Web site. The crash caused significant damage to the aircraft, but no one was killed. The other two most recent accidents at Schiphol -- in 1998 and 1997 -- also resulted in no fatalities, according to the network. The last fatal incident at the Amsterdam airport happened in April 1994 when a KLM aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff as it tried to return to Schiphol. Three of the 24 passengers and crew members on board were killed. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/25/turkish.plane.amsterdam/index.htm l ************* Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam Emergency crews were at the scene in minutes (BBC) A Turkish Airlines plane has crashed on landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport, killing nine people and injuring more than 50. The plane, with 128 passengers and seven crew, crashed short of the runway near the A9 highway. It broke into three pieces, but did not catch fire. Witnesses spoke of seeing at least 20 passengers walking from the wreckage of Flight 1951. Officials said it was unclear why the plane, en route from Istanbul, crashed. There were conflicting reports initially about the number of dead, but at a press conference at Schiphol a couple of hours after the crash, the airport director confirmed that nine people had died. SCHIPHOL ACCIDENTS 27 October 2005: A fire at the airport's detention centre killed 11 people and injured 15 4 April 1994: Three people were killed and 13 seriously injured when a KLM flight carrying 24 people crashed on landing 4 October 1992: An El Al Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment block after takeoff, killing 47 people The incident happened at 1031 local time (0931 GMT). Michel Bezuijen, mayor of the Haarlemmermeer municipality under which Schiphol airport falls, said 25 of those hurt were seriously injured. They included both passengers and crew, he told a news conference. Candan Karlitekin, head of Turkish Airlines' board of directors, told reporters in Turkey that visibility had been good at the time of landing. "We have checked the plane's documents and there is no problem concerning maintenance," he is quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. One passenger aboard the plane, Kerem Uzel, told Turkish news channel NTV that the plane's landing had been announced when they were at an altitude of 600m (2,000ft). "We suddenly descended a great distance as if the plane fell into turbulence. The plane's tail hit the ground... It slid from the side of the motorway into the field." White sheets Schiphol Airport spokesman Rudd Wecer earlier told BBC News that the plane came down a couple of hundred metres short of a runway, in normal weather conditions. Emergency services reached the site quickly, he added. Television footage showed rescue workers laying out white sheets on what appeared to be bodies. The injured people were being taken to Spaarne hospital, in Haarlem, close to the airport, while relatives of passengers were assembled in a sports hall at a nearby village. Thomas Freidhoff, a student who was cycling past the scene, told BBC News he had seen the plane appearing to glide through the air, having lost all propulsion, before hitting the ground. "The plane was nose up and the tail section was at a 45-degree angle. The tail section broke down first, which broke off," he said. "And seconds after the crash people started exiting through the tail section... "I saw dozens of people making it out very quickly, and as I was about to dial 911 the first sirens were noticeable, and within five minutes there were 10 or 15 ambulances." A witness who was driving past the airport moments after the crash told BBC News he saw the plane lying in a field just 60m from the A9 motorway, surrounded by large clouds of brown dust and grey smoke. "I saw the plane lying there in three pieces," said Nikolai van der Smagt, who works for a telecom company near Schiphol airport. "The first people were just getting off the plane and they looked confused. There was a lot a dust, but no fire." 'Lot of sirens' Resident Jonathan Nip described the scene: "What I'm seeing now is the whole of the aeroplane - without any wings or front or rear end - is lying in the field and there are about 50 ambulances, a lot of fire trucks, a couple of helicopters, emergency helicopters, a lot of police, a lot of sirens. "The highway which is running next to the crash site is closed right now because of the traffic that has stopped to watch the crash." All flights were suspended, but the airport has since re-opened. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft left Istanbul's Ataturk Airport at 0822 (0622 GMT). The last crash involving a Turkish Airlines plane was in 2003 when at least 65 people died in an accident in eastern Turkey. Schiphol airport has six runways and one major passenger terminal. In 2007, it handled 47 million passengers, ranking fifth in Europe. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7909683.stm ************** Accident description languages: Status: Preliminary Date: 25 FEB 2009 Time: 10:31 Type: Boeing 737-8F2 Operator: Türk Hava Yollari - THY Registration: TC-JGE C/n / msn: 29789/1065 First flight: 2002-01-24 Engines: 2 CFMI CFM56-7B26 Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 7 Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: 128 Total: Fatalities: 9 / Occupants: 135 Airplane damage: Written off Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: ca 1,5 km N of Amsterdam-Schiphol International Airport (AMS) (Netherlands) Phase: Landing (LDG) Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport (IST/LTBA), Turkey Destination airport: Amsterdam-Schiphol International Airport (AMS/EHAM), Netherlands Flightnumber: 1951 Narrative: Turkish Airlines flight TK1951 departed Istanbul (IST) at 08:22 on a scheduled flight to Amsterdam-Schiphol International Airport (AMS). It was clseared for an approach to runway 18R. The Boeing 737 was on final approach, when it came down in a farm field some 1,5 km short of the runway threshold. The airplane broke in three but there was no fire. Officials reported nine fatalities as of 12:30 UTC. Weather reported about 09:40 UTC (10:40 local): EHAM 250925Z 20010KT 4500 BR SCT007 BKN008 OVC010 04/03 Q1027 TEMPO 2500= [Wind 200 degrees, 10 kts, visibity 4500m in mist, scattered clouds 700 ft., broken clouds 800 f, overcast 1,000 ft.temperature 4 deg. C, dewpoint3 deg. C] EHAM 250955Z 21010KT 4500 BR BKN007 OVC008 05/04 Q1027 TEMPO 2500= [Wind 200 degrees, 10 kts, visibity 4500m in mist, broken clouds 700 f, overcast 800 ft.temperature 5 deg. C, dewpoint 4 deg. C] (aviation-safety.net) ************ Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC