Dutch TV just did a phone interview with one of the passengers.

Normal flight up to final approach, reports of turbulence/instability after which the plane sort of fell out of the sky into the field.

Some 15 pax were able to evacuate the aircraft straight away and helped other passengers out of the plane. But they did not have the tools to help passengers stuck in the aft end of the plane.

He commented that the emergency services were quickly on the scene and took over rescue efforts.

Passenger was unhurt by the way and sounded very composed. Wants to go home but is being held in a farmers hangar close to the scene because they want to perform medical checks on anybody who was on board, but obviously the wounded go first.

Dutch TV also reports that they were relatively lucky. A mile earlier and they would have ditched in the "ringvaart", a 20-25 meter wide canal, and a mile further ahead they would have crashed on the highway.

Aircraft 'flipped over'????? I think if that was the case the damage would be considerably more than it was! Much more likely that all the dirt/rocks that would have been kicked up by the 'landing' would have just stripped winglets off...

flipped over.....:D

Sky News:

"Farmer witness account says he saw plane 'clip a tree'". :bored:

News conference
 

Schiphol airport press conference (live on Sky News UK) stating nine dead and approximately fifty injured. No information on the condition of the injured.

No indications of cause. Care of the casualties is the priority.

Images through twitter:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/images/ANP-9259371.jpg

http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/images/ANP-9259316.jpg

http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/ima...hschiphol2.jpg

rear galley
 

looks like the cabin crew had it bad in the back i see that the crew seats are missing from video on cnn rip if its true 9 people dead

A couple of observations...
 

The photos posted on page 4 of the thread are of very good quality and give away much detail....

1- The aircraft was in the landing configuration with full slat deployed.

2- The debris field is quite small, the Stbd. engine has come to rest only a few metres ahead of the fuselage suggesting very low forward speed at impact. This is supported by the (relatively little) rearward fuselage distortion in the radome and E+E bay area.

3- The heavy fuselage shear forward of the empennage suggests first point of impact was the tail. The level of vertical forces indicate improbable survival in the last few rows or rear galley.

4- The remainder of the fuselage aft of the forward W/B fairing has absorbed very significant vertical forces to the point where it has parted.

5- The forward section appears to have has suffered greater vertical impact than the mid section. This is witnessed by the hole punched through the roof section by one of the vertical (fwd) galley stanchions that can be seen poking through the roof. This might be due to the mid section experiencing vertical retardation as the main gear absorbed some of the vertical impact... the front section continued earthwards and just sheared off. Survivability therefore would better in the mid section.

6- The first stage fan blades of the engine in view have no radial distortion suggesting little or no rotation at the point of impact.

7- No fire does not mean no fuel

8- Eyewitness reports of the aircraft 'porpoising' on final approach are consistent with a deeply stalled aircraft.


.....I would be very interested to learn how much fuel remained onboard at the time of the accident.

Comment from news briefing suggest '...9 fatalities, 50 injured. No speculation as to cause, investigators onsite now....'

Terrorism has been ruled out.

Local farmer quoted that he thought the tail of the plane '...hit a tree on approach...' - seems likely seeing the location, but unlikely to have had an effect on the accident.

Could it be because they were in a plane crash, do you think? :ugh:

Press conference confirms 9 dead, 50+ wounded, of which 25+ severely. Time of crash nailed at 10.31, but not a whole lot more information. They are busy composing the passenger list. No speculations as to the reason of the crash.

Dutch news conference reporting 9 dead people and 50 wounded, among which 25 heavily. :(:(:(

(- I observe relatively few damage to the fan blades of the right engine visible in the high definition pictures of the crash site previously posted in another page -)

Good continuation,
vonbag

P.S. only now I read BackPacker reply, sorry for the echo.

> The first stage fan blades of the engine in view have no radial distortion suggesting little or no rotation at the point of impact.

Not sure how significant that is, given that the fan casing appears intact with no distortion that would have impinged on the blades even if the engine was still turning.

Starbear, sorry you are wrong the slides will deploy automatically regardless of height from the ground as long as they are armed ie that the girt bars are attached to the floor also the door power assist will also activate rapidly open the doors, again only if the doors are armed, I am of course assuming the B737 has door power assist as have never worked on them.

Seems that sone of the victims are still inside the wreckage. Activity seems to be concentrated round the cockpit.. Airport buses arrived at the scene and most of the ambulances are now leaving.

Operations resuming on two runways

How about false glide capture, low cloud base??? Not a lot of time to sort that out if your mind is set for a 'normal' landing as you come out the murk . . .

Sky news just quoted your points word for word.......
"Maglug A couple of observations... "

Hello Sky
 

Sky News UK is currently reading out PPrune posts for their "expert" to review!! Didn't catch if they quoted PPrune as the source; don't think they did.

The guy is pretty useless, of course, suggesting that the porpoising is due to the autopilot chasing the GA.

Sky anchor now saying we should "stay within the bounds of the known" after their experts have even been suggesting hijacking this morning!

Matkat
 

Actually Matkat, I am not. I will if required find you chapter and verse but for now I assure you that opening of the door (power assisted or not) merely allows the slide to be withdrawn from its bustle and fall outwards. This drop then causes a cable (lanyard) to pull a pin and activate the air/nitrogen cylinder to inflate, with assistance of aspirators, the slide itself. It is for this reason the worst thing one can do is to remove a set of steps or airbridge away from an inadvertently "deployed" slide.

The slide needs to drop for full activation.

Turkish press is reporting that Dutch TV is reporting port engine seperated in flight resulting in loss of control...

Hollanda TV'sinden þok iddia - Hürriyet

Any more on this?

Didn't catch if they quoted PPRuNe as the source; don't think they did.

They said the comments came from 'quite a reputable website'.

Cyclist who saw accident happen, now on BBC Radio 5...

He says...
Regardless of power levels, is still looking like this aircraft entered a fully stalled condition.

Despite the tragic loss of life and no doubt many spinal compressions, fractures and internal injuries, this Boeing 737 looks like having allowed a large proportion of passengers to survive what was undoubtedly a very high vertical descent rate.