miércoles, 25 de febrero de 2009

A Turkish Airlines plane has crashed on landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport, killing nine people and injuring 84, six critically.

A Turkish Airlines plane has crashed on landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport, killing nine people and injuring 84, six critically.
The plane, carrying 126 passengers and seven crew, crashed short of the runway near the A9 highway. It broke into three pieces, but did not catch fire.
Three of those killed are crew members. Dutch officials say most of the passengers on board were Turkish.
It remains unclear why the plane, en route from Istanbul, crashed.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft came down at 1031 local time (0931 GMT), several hundred yards (metres) short of the runway. It had left Istanbul's Ataturk Airport at 0622 GMT.
At a news conference in Amsterdam, officials confirmed that all the bodies had been removed from the plane.
Investigators have found the flight data recorders from the plane. They will be sent for expert analysis.
Emergency services spokeswoman Ineke van der Zande told an earlier news conference that six people were in a critical condition and 25 were severely wounded.
Another 24 passengers had suffered light injuries, she said, with the injuries of another 31 still to be determined.
She said 84 people altogether had been taken using 60 ambulances to 11 hospitals in the surrounding area.
Michel Bezuijen, mayor of the Haarlemmermeer municipality under which Schiphol airport falls, said the passenger list was being studied to establish the nationalities and identities of those on board.
"As far as I know there are no more passengers in the plane," he said. "We cannot say anything about the cause at the moment. The priority... is providing help and care."
Earlier, Candan Karlitekin, head of Turkish Airlines' board of directors, told reporters in Turkey the plane had been properly maintained.
"We have checked the plane's documents and there is no problem concerning maintenance," he is quoted as saying by AP.
Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said it had been "a miracle" that there were not more casualties, AP reports.
"The fact that the plane landed on a soft surface and that there was no fire helped keep the number of fatalities low," he said.
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."

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