Turkish Plane Crash In Amsterdam

[I Surrender]

Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam

 

 

Air traffic control confirms emergency at Schiphol Airport

 

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. Their bodies have been left in the cockpit while investigations continue.

 

Officials said it was 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.

 

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 a 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."

 

How the Schiphol crash happened

Relatives of passengers who were waiting at the airport have been taken to a sports hall at a nearby village.

 

Airport spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang said Turkish Airlines had organised a special flight to Schiphol, due to arrive at 1710 GMT, for family members of those on the plane which crashed.

 

Tomas Friedhoff, 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."

 

Telecom worker Nikolai van der Smagt, who was driving past the airport moments after the crash, told BBC News he saw the plane lying in three pieces in a field just 60m from the A9 motorway.

 

He said: "The first people were just getting off the plane and they looked confused. There was a lot of dust, but no fire."

 

All flights were suspended, but the airport has since re-opened. The A9 motorway remains closed.

 

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.

 

SOURCE & Videoreport

 

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45510000/jpg/_45510296_006936669-1.jpg

Edited February 25, 2009 at 06:33 PM by I Surrender

[Filine]

Really awful...it's a miracle that there was no fire and that so many people lived.

[I Surrender]

i know, imagine if he plane had crashed on the highway dont even wanna think about that. this is horrible but it could have been so much worse.

[Koolan]

I heard about this today.

[Jacqui]

So sad. Scary.

[Bralo20]

It seems that the latest months more planes are crashing then used to be during the past years... Although some recent spectacular crashes happened without fatalities (Continental B737 crash and the US Airways A320 crash) there are recently also crashes with fatalities and the crashes with the most mediacoverage where both crashes during the landing. We had the Dash 8 (Q400) from Colgan with 51 fatalities and now we have the B738 crash from Turkish... Both during final approach...

 

I wonder what the reason is the B738 from Turkish crashed... The 738 from TCY was a Next Gen plane with only 7 years of age... Wonder why the a/c stalled during the final approach... Some say engine faillure with lost of trust in both engines although several people stated that the throttle was increased in the last seconds for the crash.

 

The Colgan crash was with a even more recent plane, a Dash 8 (Q400) with only 1 year of age...

 

 

I like flying and flying is still a lot safer then driving but recently several serious accidents happened (like last year the Spanair crash and now those 2 crashes)...

[Bellamy]

I knew. It makes me feel abit scary about traveling by plane. At least there's no crash in China yet.

[Bralo20]

I knew. It makes me feel abit scary about traveling by plane. At least there's no crash in China yet.

 

Chinese carriers are those days also using modern aircrafts so from that point of view they are relatively safe (at least on international flights, on domestic flights it seems some still like to use old(er) aircrafts).

 

But some thing you can't control... The US1549 for example crashed probably due a flock of birds which hit the plane and both engines. Even with the best bird controle you can't rule out birdstrikes anywhere... Especially when the birds aren't on the runways but when they are in the flightpad of the plane... It's maybe very rare that it will happen but it can and will happen eventually. Losing 1 engine isn't a to big problem since every plane can take of on 1 engine and make a landing with it. But losing both engines is something different... If this occures during takeoff or landing then you are screwed... Landings and takeoffs are the most critical events during a flight due the lack of height and speed and unfortunately this will remain so in the future...

 

Or take the Colgan crash a couple of weeks ago... First preliminary thoughts are about icing. Icing can occur whitout the pilots noticing it. And again like the US crash: when it occures during takeoff or landing you have very little time to react or better, sometimes no time at all...

 

 

Flying is and will remain the safest way of travelling but there will always be a risk present to a tragical accident, but this is the same while walking by foot, driving a bike, car, bus, truck, travelling by train and traveling by boat...

 

 

I enjoy flying and won't stop doing it because of some crashes that occured... I shall think about it for a second when entering a plane but that's it. And in the end, when it happens, it happens... And when it happens you can only wish that it's quick and fast without suffering.

[Bralo20]

From the preliminary report which was published yesterday by the Dutch safetyboard we can see some interesting things:

 

- The left radio altimeter (LRA or LH radalt) gave a wrong measurement of -8ft (ground level) instead of the correct 1.950ft as measured by the other altimeters including the right radio altimeter (RRA or RH radalt).

- The faulty measurement was readed by the autopilot as the final stage of landing, the autopilot commanded the autothrottle to put the engines in "retard" mode (they were idle = no thrust)

- Pilots saw the faulty measurement but didn't respond to it

- Pilots got a warning of this faulty measurment due the gear down alarm which they responded to by lowering the landinggear

- The autopilot/autothrust system is only using the LH radalt so the system thought it was in its final landingstage

- Pilots let the plane bleed of speed and altitude even below Vref speed (reference speed for landing) and didn't correct it

- At a certain point the plane had reached stall speed which enabled the stick shacker (alarm sounding in the cockpit + the stick (equivalent to the steeringwheel in a car) shacked very intensely to get attention from the pilots)

- First officer (trainee) responded to this by giving full thrust by the thrust levers but didn't disconect autopilot/autothrottle

- Thrust went back to idle due the "retard" mode

- Captain responded to this by giving full power again but then it was to late, the plane stalled and crashlanded tail first in the ground.

- The same fault with the LH radalt happend 2 times before the crash in the last 8 flights during the last 25 hours previous to the crash

- It was not a controlled crashlanding (although several media were thinking this), the plane just stalled and crashed. Actions from the crew were taken to late.

 

 

So it seemed that the Boeing had a problem, a problem that happened before and should have been reported.

The pilots didn't react to the fault which was clear they knew (CVR transcript). (AFAIK the 737 operations manual states that in case of a radalt failure or misreading the autopilot may not be used and the plane must be flown by hand). The pilots didn't noticed it that the plane went well below reference speed and even came to stall speed (it seems they didn't look at the gauges during the landing). Only after the stick shacker was activated they responded...

 

 

It seems it will be a small technical faillure followed by pilot error... Still waiting for the final report but the preliminary is showing this allready...

[Bellamy]

Saw the report on news, not as detailed though.