Libya Airplane Deaths Shake Dutch Nation

The Epoch Times, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 8:45
AMSTERDAM—

A 10-year-old boy was carried into the hospital in Libya's capital, Tripoli, on early Wednesday morning, suffering multiple fractures and a wound to the face. More injured were expected to be brought in, but they never came. The child, believed by his doctors to be a Dutch national turned out to be the only survivor of a crashed Airbus A330-200 at Tripoli's airport.

The airliner, operated by Lybian airline Afriqiyah Airways, was carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew members when it crashed near the landing strip, killing all but one.

Images of the crash site, showing parts ripped off the airplane spread over a wide area, quickly spread around the world. The news shook residents in The Netherlands, since 58 of the passengers were Dutch nationals, making it one of the largest plane crashes involving Dutch nationals in history.

Flags were raised at half-mast throughout The Netherlands, scheduled TV programming on public and commercial channels was stalled to cover the crash, and political parties postponed their election campaigns.

"This is a large group of Dutch nationals after all, so it's a deeply sad message we have this day,” said Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen called it a “disaster of huge proportions.”

{etRelated 35269}Other victims were from South Africa, Libya, Austria, Germany, Zimbabwea, France and the UK. The nationalities of 19 victims remains unclear, Afriqiyah Airways said in a statement.

Soon after the crash, the company announced that the families of victims were given a chance to be flown to the crash site, with no visas required.
The Royal Dutch Tourist Association ANWB is sending a team of three specialists on Thursday to repatriate the Dutch child that survived the crash as soon as possible. Dutch media reported that the boy was on the flight with his parents and 11-year-old brother.

It is unclear what caused the Airbus A330-200 airliner to crash. Possibility of an ash cloud coming from an Iceland volcano, or a terrorist attack, have been ruled out as causes by officials.

One security official told AFP that the plane "exploded on landing and totally disintegrated."

Another official said that the plane had burst into flames.

Good weather at the time of the crash, with a sight distance of 2.9 miles, raised questions about how the plane crashed so close to the runway.

"Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft crashed short of the runway threshold during approach," Airbus said in a statement.

The aircraft manufacturer sent a team of investigators to Tripoli to join efforts in investigating the two recovered black boxes, containing flight recordings and the cause of the crash.

The plane was delivered brand new to the airliner in September last year, and its final flight was its 420th on record.

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/43/327/Libya_Airplane_Deaths_Shake_Dutch_Nation.html

Dutch death toll in Tripoli crash rises to 70, says foreign affairs ministry

Thursday 13 May 2010

Dutch News.nl -

The number of Dutch nationals killed in Wednesday's Tripoli air disaster has risen to 70, the foreign affairs ministry said on Thursday afternoon.

In addition to the 62 people who were travelling with two holiday companies, nine Dutch nationals had booked flights on the Airbus 330 from South Africa independently.

According to the Telegraaf, they include a family of five which boarded the plane just moments before it took off. It is likely that a large number of the dead are children, given that there were half-term holidays in many places last week.

The ministry said it based its estimates of the Dutch death toll on information from the two holiday companies, the passenger list and Johannesburg customs officials.

Survivor

The only survivor of the flight, which killed 103 people, is a nine-year-old boy from Tilburg. His aunt and uncle are at his bedsite, the Telegraaf reported. His parents and older brother were killed in the crash.

Foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen is holding a press conference on the disaster at 17.15 hours.

In towns and villages where the dead lived, flags have been put at half-mast. One village sports club has cancelled a local football match because three members of the club - a woman and two children - were killed.

Worst The death of 61 Dutch nationals in Wednesday's Tripoli plane crash is one of the worst air disasters to hit the Netherlands.

The highest death toll was recorded in 1977 when two planes collided on the holiday island of Tenerife, killing 583 people including 248 Dutch nationals.

In 1989, 179 people were killed in plane crash in Suriname and in 1958, 99 Dutch nationals died when a plane plunged into the Atlantic ocean near Ireland.