Air Crash
February 25, 2009 Turkish Plane Crash in Amsterdam
This morning a plane crashed near Schipol airport in Amsterdam.
HAARLEMMERLIEDE, Netherlands — A Turkish Airlines jetliner plummeted out of the mist and plowed into a muddy field Wednesday near Amsterdam’s main airport, but nearly everyone on board _ 125 people _ survived. The nine dead included both pilots.
The Boeing 737-800 was en route from Istanbul to Amsterdam carrying 134 people when it suddenly lost speed and fell out of the sky about two miles short of the runway at Schiphol Airport, investigators said.
The jetliner broke into three pieces upon impact: the fuselage tore in two near the cockpit and the tail was ripped off. Despite the catastrophic impact, the wreckage did not burn and scores of people walked away.
Survivor Huseyin Sumer said 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 on Turkish NTV, adding that the crash was over in 5 to 10 seconds.
Another survivor, Jihad Alariachi, said there was no warning from the cockpit to brace for landing before the ground loomed up through the mist and drizzle.
“We braked really hard, but that’s normal in a landing. And then the nose went up. And then we bounced … with the nose aloft,” she said, adding that she and her sister scrambled out an emergency exit.
More than 50 people were injured, about half of them seriously.
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