Nine dead in plane crash near Amsterdam

At least nine people were killed when a Turkish Airlines passenger plane crashed near Amsterdam on Wednesday. The Boeing 737-800 from Istanbul with 134 people on board appears to have just missed one of the landing runways of Amsterdam Schiphol airport.

The pilots of the airplane are said to be amongst the victims and are still in the cockpit. More than 84 people were injured, at least 6 of them severely, said the acting mayor of the municipality where the plane crashed, during a press conference. The cause of the crash is still unclear and will be investigated, he said.

Eyewitnesses

The most vivid eyewitness account of the accident involving the Turkish Airlines aircraft came from passenger Mustafa Bahcecioglu. He told public broadcaster NOS: “I was jolted awake and ten seconds later we landed on the ground with a bang. Myself and a group left through one of the exits. We helped women and children. There are also some dead, I know that for certain. And a great many injured. Lots of screaming and blood. I won the lottery: it’s unbelievable that I did not get hurt at all myself.”

Flight 1951, with 127 passengers and 7 crew on board, was due to land at Amsterdam Schiphol airport's Polderbaan runway Wednesday morning. However, the plane ended up in an unploughed field next to the A9 motorway about 20 kilometres from the capital Amsterdam. The plane broke into three parts, but did not catch fire.

One eyewitness said that it looked as if the plane had run out of fuel and flew in like a glider. A car passenger who saw the accident happen from the A9 told the NOS: “It was going very slowly and then it started to fall. It burst into pieces suddenly, straight down.”

Just after the plane crashed at 10.31 am local time, farmer Teun van der Blom was at the scene. “About 35 to 40 people came out over the wing. It looked horrible. I didn’t dare to get any closer because I was afraid the plane would explode.”

Ambulances queuing up

The emergency services sprang into action quickly after the accident. A total of forty ambulances were involved in carrying away the wounded. The operation of taking the wounded from the scene was chaotic as the roads with access to the crash site are very narrow. At around noon there were at least eight ambulances queuing up to leave the site. Tractors and two Schiphol buses were also deployed to transport the wounded.

From the A9 highway at about noon one could see that the plane lay in three pieces in an unploughed field, surrounded by pieces of debris. Parts of the engine lie lay several tens of metres from the nose of the aircraft. The end part of the tail was standing vertical. Passengers were carried out through the rupture in the middle of the plane. Several dozen ambulances waited to take them from the scene. Within a few minutes four trauma helicopters had landed on site.

The rescue operation was finished by about 1 pm. Eyewitnesses say seven or eight bodies were taken away under white sheets and in body bags. A spokesperson for Schiphol said at 1.30 pm local time that nine people were killed and at least 50 injured.

Dutch transport minister Camiel Eurlings, in a statement, said: "Many families in the Netherlands and in Turkey are worried. We sympathise with them intensely and hope that there will soon be clarity about the fate of their family members and friends. Everything is being done to offer that clarity."

All flights to and from Schiphol were suspended for about three hours and the A9 around the airport has been closed. Many flights due to land at Amsterdam have been redirected to Rotterdam's Zestienhoven Airport, and air traffic to Schiphol is being resumed using other runways.

It was the first time in 13 years that a fatal passenger plane crash took place in the Netherlands.

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