Plane Crash in Amsterdam Leaves 9 Dead

By PETER DEJONG

,

AP

AMSTERDAM (Feb. 25) - A Turkish Airlines plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a muddy field while attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport Wednesday. Nine people were killed and more than 50 were injured, many in serious condition, officials said.

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Plane Crash in Amsterdam

AFP/Getty Images

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Emergency personnel work at the scene of Wednesday's plane crash near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. The Turkish Airlines plane crashed into a field while trying to land, and it broke into three pieces. Nine people are confirmed dead in the crash. Click through to see more photos of the crash.

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The Boeing 737-800 fractured into three pieces on impact. The fuselage split in two, close to the cockpit, and the tail broke off. One engine lay almost intact near the wreck in the muddy field and the other was some 200 yards (meters) from the plane and heavily damaged, an Associated Press photographer at the scene said.

Flight TK1951 left Istanbul's Ataturk Airport at 8:22 a.m. (0622 GMT, 0122 EST) bound for Amsterdam, then crashed at 1031 a.m. (0931 GMT, 0431 EST) next to a runway at Schiphol Airport.

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said it was "a miracle" there were not more casualties.

"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.

Survivor Huseyin Sumer told Turkish NTV television he crawled to safety out of 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. He said the crash was over in five to 10 seconds.

The fact that the plane landed in a muddy, plowed field may have contributed to making the accident less deadly by absorbing much of the force of the hard impact, experts said. It may also have helped avert a fire resulting from ruptured fuel tanks and lines on the underside of the fuselage, which appeared to have suffered very heavy impact damage.

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