Turkish Airlines Plane Crash Lands Into Field Nearby Schiphol Intl Airport

A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800, carrying 127 passengers and 7 crewmen, has crash landed into a field close to the runway nearby Schiphol Airport, where it was scheduled to land at 10:40 (CET). On impact, the plane broke into 3 pieces that have remained intact for the most part. Eye witnesses tell at least 50 people escaped the plane on their own, without serious visible injuries. Others were rushed to hospitals in the proximity by aid workers, who were all over the crash site in no time.
At this point (12:50 CET) no deaths have been confirmed, but footage from the site reveals that at least 4 people did not survive the crash.
The cause of the accident is uncertain, but eye witness reports rule out any terrorist attack.


Latest news: at least nine people (6 passengers and 3 crew members) were killed in the crash.


Update: Nine dead are confirmed. Among the dead are the two pilots of the plane. Over 80 people were injured in the crash, six of them are in critical condition. An investigation has been started to find out what caused the plane to crash. Eye witness reports suggest a total and sudden loss of all engine power. This could be caused by the plane running out of fuel, but we just don't know for sure at this point.

The crash is one of the worst to happen in the direct proximity of Schiphol Airport (or on Dutch soil, for that matter). In earlier plane crashes nearby or at Schiphol Airport in 1994 and 1946, three respectively 26 people were killed.
The worst plane crash on Dutch soil happened in 1992, when an El Al cargo flight crashed into an apartment building, killing 43.

I heard about that.  It will be interesting to find out why the plane malfunctioned.  Such a tragic loss of lives too. :\'(

that's horrible....please keep us updated on the details.

There's not much to tell yet. Still uncertainty about the identity of the casualties, because there doesn't seem to be an exact match between the boarding list and other data supplied by the passengers themselves later on.

Investigations that started late in the afternoon yesterday have continued throughout the night into the day. Results aren't expected until Saturday (earliest). The plane will most likely be removed from its spot starting coming Sunday.
The runway the plane was heading towards is still closed for all incoming and outgoing flights.

If you read the Yahoo! News Item (or any other report on the matter), you might stumble across the name of Jihad Alariachi. She and her two sisters Esmaa and Hajar form the "Meiden van Halal" (Girls of Halal), who have done a series of programs on Dutch television a couple of years ago on the subject of integration, to measure the actual involvement of a number of political parties.
Both Jihad and Hajar were aboard the plane, but escaped without injury.

Latest news:

Six dead and four critically injured have not been succesfully identified yet, mayor Theo Weterings of Haarlemmermeer announced earlier today at a press conference.
The four critically injured are in no condition to talk at this moment, so they could not be interrogated.
Of the dead, only three crew members (who were all in the cockpit at the time of the crash) have been identified.

Aboard the plane were 53 Dutch, 51 Turks, seven Americans, three British citizens, one German, one Thai, one Italian, one Fin and one Bulgarian. The nationality of 15 other passengers is yet to be determined.

The nationality of the dead has been revealed. They were five Turks and four Americans, whose identities have not been revealed to the public (yet). However, their relatives have been informed about their fate.

The identity of two of the critically injured still has to be determined.

Also, aboard the plane were 135 passengers and crew members - one more than it stated on the boarding list. This makes identifying the extra passenger even more difficult.

First results on the investigations are expected around Wednesday next week.

Modified to add:
The Westboro Baptist Church has announced to organize pickets at the funerals of the victims. ..Sickos. 8-P
According to the learnings of the WBC, Turks are doomed because they're godless and Americans are doomed for... allowing same sex marriages, I believe. And of course, so are the Dutch (for allowing same sex marriages).

At a press conference, about three quarters of an hour ago, it was announced that the identity of the nine dead has been fully determined.
Among the dead are two employees of Boeing.


If you read the Yahoo! News Item (or any other report on the matter), you might stumble across the name of Jihad Alariachi. She and her two sisters Esmaa and Hajar form the "Meiden van Halal" (Girls of Halal), who have done a series of programs on Dutch television a couple of years ago on the subject of integration, to measure the actual involvement of a number of political parties.
Both Jihad and Hajar were aboard the plane, but escaped without injury.


Not entirely true. Jihad Alariachi suffered internal bruisings of the abdominal area. Very painful, but not life threatening.


Aboard the plane were 53 Dutch, 51 Turks, seven Americans, three British citizens, one German, one Thai, one Italian, one Fin and one Bulgarian. The nationality of 15 other passengers is yet to be determined.


Aboard the plane were 60 Dutch. I'm not sure how/if the other figures have changed.

Say...Is anybody actually reading this? ???

At a press conference, about three quarters of an hour ago, it was announced that the identity of the nine dead has been fully determined.
Among the dead are two employees of Boeing.

Not entirely true. Jihad Alariachi suffered internal bruisings of the abdominal area. Very painful, but not life threatening.

Aboard the plane were 60 Dutch. I'm not sure how/if the other figures have changed.

Say...Is anybody actually reading this? ???


I'm reading it.

I'm wondering how it happened, but I know we won't know anything until next week sometime, at the earliest

I'm reading it.


Thanks. I was beginning to wonder...


I'm wondering how it happened, but I know we won't know anything until next week sometime, at the earliest


That is true, I'm afraid. We will have to wait.
One of the other (strong) possibilities that has been suggested lately is that the crash might've been caused by a phenomenon called wake turbulence. There might not have been sufficient distance between the Turkish Airlines plane and the plane that landed before. But again, this is just a possibility - nothing definitive at this point.

The runway the plane was heading towards is still closed for all incoming and outgoing flights.



Runway will be reopened tomorrow, mayor Theo Weterings of Haarlemmermeer announced in a local meeting.

Thanks. I was beginning to wonder...

That is true, I'm afraid. We will have to wait.
One of the other (strong) possibilities that has been suggested lately is that the crash might've been caused by a phenomenon called wake turbulence. There might not have been sufficient distance between the Turkish Airlines plane and the plane that landed before. But again, this is just a possibility - nothing definitive at this point.


Yeah, I was reading some reports on-line - and I asked my husband about anything he'd heard through work.  Possibilities are wake turbulence, sudden engine failure, ran out of fuel, stalling (through incorrect flight angle)

I'm reading it too ... thanks for the updates.

Yeah, I was reading some reports on-line - and I asked my husband about anything he'd heard through work.  Possibilities are wake turbulence, sudden engine failure, ran out of fuel, stalling (through incorrect flight angle)


Let's see... I think they've ruled out lack of fuel (apparently the plane was still carrying enough when it crashed) and wake turbulence.
Which leaves us with sudden engine failure and stalling...or something entirely different that we don't know of.
Have to wait till Wednesday...

Let's see... I think they've ruled out lack of fuel (apparently the plane was still carrying enough when it crashed) and wake turbulence.
Which leaves us with sudden engine failure and stalling...or something entirely different that we don't know of.
Have to wait till Wednesday...


Even then we might not know.  I guess they'll have done the analysis of the flight data recorders by then.

Even then we might not know.  I guess they'll have done the analysis of the flight data recorders by then.


Indeed. No telling yet what they've found (if anything at all). :-\\


BTW: Even over here, it's getting harder and harder to find news on the crash/investigations.

We now know the cause of the crash...
These are the conclusions of the investigation by the OVV, lead by Mr Pieter van Vollenhove (brother-in-law to our queen, but this aside):

Investigations of the black boxes have revealed that one of the altometers has malfunctioned. About one minute before the crash, it suddenly read -8 ft instead of the actual 1,950 ft the plane was flying at. This automatically caused the plane (flying on autopilot) to go into "approach mode", thus effectively setting in a landing procedure. This included reducing speed by cutting back on engine power till virtually none.
The pilots of the plane didn't acknowledge the problem in time, and when they did it was already too late.
It is uncertain why the pilots didn't react in time. Fact is that the trainee pilot was behind the controls at the time of these events.
Another fact is that on at least two occasions, the plane had had problems before with one of the altometers.


One week after the crash, one of the critically injured is still in critical condition. The other five have improved, so this is good news.

Thanks for the update Henk.

I guess they'll be checking up on the service history of this plane and also whether another other planes of the same make/model have had similar problems.

It's been two weeks since the crash.

Still 23 people in hospital, one of them in critical condition.

They've started removing bits and pieces of the wreckage earlier this week. Today they've removed the cockpit segment.


Soon everything will be back to "normal"...