A Turkish Airlines plane crashed into a muddy field near Amsterdam's main airport early Wednesday morning, killing nine people and injuring more than 50 others, officials confirmed.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft, carrying 135 passengers, crashed around 4:30 a.m. EST about three kilometres from the runway at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam's main airport.
At a press conference, officials said nine were dead, including two pilots and an apprentice pilot, and six critically injured.
"We can't say whether they'll survive or not, they're in critical condition," one official told reporters.
In total, the official said 84 passengers on the plane had been taken to hospital.
Of those hospitalized, 25 passengers were "severely wounded" and 24 had "light injuries." Details of the injuries to the remaining passengers were not immediately available, said the official.
Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said it was a "miracle" that the crash did not lead to more casualties.
Turkey's ambassador to the Netherlands, Selahattin Alpar, said there were 72 Turks on board the plane and 32 Dutch citizens. There was no immediate word on the nationalities of the other passengers.
Neals Erkens, a journalist with Radio Netherlands, told Â鶹´«Ã½net that there were no reports of any Canadians being on the plane.
Fred Sanders, of the Dutch Safety Board, confirmed that the plane's recording equipment had been found and was being sent to Paris for analysis.
Initial reports said one person on Flight TK1951 was killed in the crash and then Candan Karlitekin, head of the board for Turkish Airlines, said all on board had survived. Shortly thereafter, local officials confirmed the nine deaths.
There was also confusion Wednesday about how many people were actually on the plane, with figures from various officials ranging from 134 to 143.
Details of the crash
Both of the plane's engines tore off during the crash. One of the engines was lying almost intact near the wreckage while the second engine, which was more heavily damaged, rested about 200 metres from the plane.
Also, the fuselage ripped in two and the plane's tail broke off.
Survivor Huseyin Sumer told Turkish NTV television that he crawled out of the plane through 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, adding that the crash was over in five to 10 seconds.
Officials said the muddy field may have helped cushion the plane's impact, preventing an even worse disaster.
The soft field may have also helped avert a fire from breaking out as the plane's fuel lines and tanks were badly ruptured.
Officials could not immediately say what caused the crash. The head of Turkish Airlines, Temel Kotil, said the captain, Hasan Tahsin, was a former air force pilot who had a great deal of experience.
Investigators will look at a number of possible causes, from weather or bird strikes to pilot fatigue or navigational errors.
It was cloudy and drizzling at the time of the crash, but Karlitekin told reporters that visibility was good.
"Visibility was clear and around 4,500 metres. Some 500 metres before landing, the plane landed on a field instead of the runway," he said.
Airline officials said they have checked the plane's documents, which indicate that there were no maintenance concerns.
The plane was built in 2002 and underwent maintenance on Dec. 22.
A spokesperson from Boeing said it will send a team to provide technical help to Dutch officials who are investigating the crash.
The 737-800 is known for its "very good safety record," Bill Voss, president of the independent Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va., told the Associated Press.
"It has been involved in a couple of accidents, but nothing that relates directly back to the aircraft," he said, adding that the plane had the best flight data recorders.
Turkish Airlines has had a number of serious crashes since 1974, when 360 people were killed after a DC-10 crashed near Paris after a cargo door came off the plane. In 2003, 75 people died when an RJ-100 missed the runway in heavy fog in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir.
Locals helped survivors
At the scene, Dutch television images showed police and rescue crews working to help passengers out of the wreckage.
Radio Netherlands reporter Maurice Laparliere told Â鶹´«Ã½net that some passengers waited 15 minutes inside the plane before being rescued.
"We do have stories of farmers working in the fields who got in, opened the door and saw quite terrible scenes... especially at the rear of the plane," he said.
Laparliere said the plane's tail crashed down on the ground first.
Schiphol airport is the third largest European airport in terms of cargo and the fourth largest European airport in terms of passenger numbers (47.8 million passengers in 2007), according to the Amsterdam Airport Area website.
With files from The Associated Press
