The dead included three pilots onboard identified as Hasan Tahsin Arısan, Olgay Özgür and Murat Sezer. The plane, carrying 127 passengers and seven crew members, split in three as it crashed in a field near the runway of the airport.
According to surviving passengers, most of the passengers made it out of the plane unaided, with ambulances and firefighters being late to arrive at the scene. The Boeing 737-800, arriving from İstanbul, was severely damaged as it quickly descended. The impact split the fuselage near the front of the wing, while the tail and a rear section of the body were sheared off. Turkish news stations ran a voice recording of Dutch control tower authorities calling on pilots of other aircraft at the airport and circling above to maintain position and not taxi due to an “emergency in progress.” A voice is heard saying, “It looks like we lost an aircraft.” Initially, there was confusion about the number of casualties.
At least 50 were injured and there were at least nine casualties passenger plane when a THY plane nearly crashed in a field while coming in to land at the Schiphol airport. |
The dead included at least one personnel member, various survivors of the crash told the NTV station via telephone. This was later confirmed by Turkish officials, who announced the death of the three pilots.
Twenty-five of the injured were in serious condition, both Dutch and Turkish officials confirmed.
A THY official at Schiphol told NTV that at least 80 passengers appeared to be safe. They were outside the stricken plane, wading through luggage which had been strewn across the scene.
“We are in the middle of a field now, approximately five or six kilometers from the airport,” one survivor, Mustafa Bahçecioğlu, told Turkish broadcaster Channel 24.
“The majority of the passengers are injured, but there are people who are not injured. Around 30 ambulances have come here,” Reuters reported him as saying.
The plane, flight TK1951, departed from İstanbul Atatürk Airport at 7:55 a.m. local time. The plane was a 2002-make, officials said.
The airport, one of Europe’s main aviation hubs, was closed to air traffic following the crash.
“I would like to let all the passengers who were onboard know that I wish them all a quick recovery and that our nation is with those who lost a family member,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, extending his condolences to the family of the person who died in the accident at a time when only one of the deaths could be confirmed.
An official Dutch television station reported that one of the engines of the plane ripped off from a wing when the plane was about 2,000 meters above ground level. However, both Erdoğan and THY officials said the plane’s maintenance had been carried out according to regulations. Reports of the engine falling off could not be confirmed, but the pilots requested permission for an emergency landing shortly before the accident, officials at Schiphol said. The engine in question was found some distance from the main wreckage.
Dutch authorities held a press conference at 2:30 p.m. Turkish time, saying they were unable to provide information on the cause of the accident. “We tried our best to help the injured,” a Schiphol airport director said. “Inspectors are currently continuing an investigation. We are not able to provide any information. We are currently trying to help victims of the accident, trying to place them in hotels and do whatever we can do,” he said.
He said at least 50 were injured and hospitalized, with injuries of varying degrees, noting that it was difficult to give a specific number of injuries or deaths at this point.
The plane’s technical maintenance was carried out on Dec. 22, 2008. “The cause of the crash will be clarified at the end of the investigation to be carried out by the aircraft accident investigation commission.
The plane was cleared for all flights through the end of 2009, Transportation Ministry Undersecretary Suat Aka said.
Relatives of crash victims flown to Holland
THY officials, who initially stated that there were no deaths, issued a statement in the afternoon, offering their condolences. THY set up a crisis desk at the Transportation Ministry. The ministry flew a team of three experts to the Netherlands in the afternoon. Two THY planes carried passengers’ families to Amsterdam. Dutch officials were cooperating with passport and visa problems, officials said.
THY officials said their company had taken every possible measure to help rescue teams and local officials.
The Turkish Pilots’ Association also issued a statement in the afternoon. “We cannot comment at the moment. As you know, plane accidents can be clarified only after a detailed investigation. There could be a thousand different reasons. This is why early comments are meaningless for us,” it said. However, the statement also said weather conditions did not seem to play a role in the crash. The statement also said Tahsin Arısan, the pilot, was a very experienced and knowledgeable pilot. “He is a trainer pilot. He has about 15,000 hours of flight experience. I wouldn’t even want to think that this was caused by Tahsin Arısan’s error,” the president of the association said.
