Amsterdam plane crash investigators search wreckage for clues to disaster
An emergency worker walks past the engine of the crashed Turkish Airlines passenger plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Photograph: United Photos/Reuters
Investigator is to investigate the debris of a Boeing 737 that fell into a field near Amsterdam Schiphol airport, in an attempt to find clues to what caused the accident, in which nine people were killed and 86 wounded.
Dozens of security officers and police worked overnight at the disaster site in the hope of finding evidence that could help explain why the pilot lost control of the Turkish Airlines plane seconds before it slid to the ground.
Airport spokesman confirmed today that the three Britons were on board flight. They believed Susan Lord and his children Sofia and Lisa Labeij, who traveled to the Netherlands with Jakavus Labeij, the girls' father Turkey. All the estimated escape without serious injury.
Of the 125 passengers who survived the crash, six are critically wounded, officials said. Four of seven Americans on board were Boeing employees, Haarlemmermeer mayor Theo Weterings told a press conference at the airport.
The flight's data recorders and voice tapes have been sent to Paris for examination and investigators said they expected the results within days. A separate team is working on location in the field near runway 18R, where the plane hit the ground and smashed into three pieces.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Authority, which is leading the inquiry, said the damage to the aircraft supported witness statements that it had hit the ground tail-down.
"This may indicate that the plane had lost its forward momentum, that there was no motor function," he said, cautioning that it could be a long time before a full explanation was available. "We will have an official finding probably in about a year, but we should be able to give an interim finding within weeks," said Sanders.
This morning the Turkish news website Hurriyet.com raised questions about the technical record of the aircraft, quoting sources who said it had been sent for repairs twice last week, undergoing maintenance on 18 February for a failure detected in its flaps, and again on Monday, when its "master caution" lights burned out. Those reports could not be confirmed.
Other theories behind the crash, including birds being sucked into the engine and the plane running out of fuel, appeared to be dismissed by investigators. "The cause of the crash is not yet known, and we have no hypothesis at this stage," said Rob Stenacker, a spokesman for Schiphol police.
The pilot of Flight 1951, Hasan Tahsin Arisan, who was one of three crew members to die in the crash, was an experienced former officer in the Turkish air force. There was nothing in the weather to indicate problems – aside from a slight mistiness, visibility was clear at 5,000 yards. The Boeing 737-800 model has an unblemished safety record.
Today's Turkish newspapers are critical of Turkish Airlines and the government's handling of the crisis. Initial statements claimed all passengers and crew had survived the crash. It was only hours after that the full extent of the casualties became clear. One newspaper labels the mix-up a scandal, while another writes that the aftermath "turned from celebration to torture".
Dozens of security officers and police worked overnight at the disaster site in the hope of finding evidence that could help explain why the pilot lost control of the Turkish Airlines plane seconds before it slid to the ground.
Airport spokesman confirmed today that the three Britons were on board flight. They believed Susan Lord and his children Sofia and Lisa Labeij, who traveled to the Netherlands with Jakavus Labeij, the girls' father Turkey. All the estimated escape without serious injury.
Of the 125 passengers who survived the crash, six are critically wounded, officials said. Four of seven Americans on board were Boeing employees, Haarlemmermeer mayor Theo Weterings told a press conference at the airport.
The flight's data recorders and voice tapes have been sent to Paris for examination and investigators said they expected the results within days. A separate team is working on location in the field near runway 18R, where the plane hit the ground and smashed into three pieces.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Authority, which is leading the inquiry, said the damage to the aircraft supported witness statements that it had hit the ground tail-down.
"This may indicate that the plane had lost its forward momentum, that there was no motor function," he said, cautioning that it could be a long time before a full explanation was available. "We will have an official finding probably in about a year, but we should be able to give an interim finding within weeks," said Sanders.
This morning the Turkish news website Hurriyet.com raised questions about the technical record of the aircraft, quoting sources who said it had been sent for repairs twice last week, undergoing maintenance on 18 February for a failure detected in its flaps, and again on Monday, when its "master caution" lights burned out. Those reports could not be confirmed.
Other theories behind the crash, including birds being sucked into the engine and the plane running out of fuel, appeared to be dismissed by investigators. "The cause of the crash is not yet known, and we have no hypothesis at this stage," said Rob Stenacker, a spokesman for Schiphol police.
The pilot of Flight 1951, Hasan Tahsin Arisan, who was one of three crew members to die in the crash, was an experienced former officer in the Turkish air force. There was nothing in the weather to indicate problems – aside from a slight mistiness, visibility was clear at 5,000 yards. The Boeing 737-800 model has an unblemished safety record.
Today's Turkish newspapers are critical of Turkish Airlines and the government's handling of the crisis. Initial statements claimed all passengers and crew had survived the crash. It was only hours after that the full extent of the casualties became clear. One newspaper labels the mix-up a scandal, while another writes that the aftermath "turned from celebration to torture".
