From a BBC News Alert -
A Turkish airliner with 135 people on board is reported to have crashed at Schipol airport in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
My wings are like a shield of steel.
From www.ad.nl
737-800 TC-JGE
flight TK 1951
135 passengers onboard
The BBC are reporting at least fifty people escaping unhurt which bodes well.
Video from the scene from a Dutch news broadcaster
AirSpace - more than just hot air
Another close up image from http://www.geenstijl.nl/:
Eye witness reports say the aircraft was way to low on approach, if this is the case, it looks like he tried to pull out of it and the rear section hit the ground first, hence the amount of damage to the tail....just my view
Wind from the SW (220 degrees) at 13 MPH (11 KT)Visibility 2 mile(s)Sky conditions overcastWeather Light drizzleMistTemperature 41 F (5 C)Dew Point 39 F (4 C)Relative Humidity 93%Pressure (altimeter) 30.33 in. Hg (1027 hPa)ob EHAM 251025Z 22011KT 3500 -DZ BR OVC007 05/04 Q1027 TEMPO 2500
These pictures show the impact must have been pretty dam hard...god rest their souls
i wonder what the cause(s) has been...one thing i notice is the starboard (it seems?) engine's fan blades seem almost intact (although darkened by the impact) and the engine's cowling and systems have been torn apart...does that mean it could have not been turning very fast at the time of impact? considering that it crash landed short of the runway and tail first by the looks of things, someone would say that they would have tried to reach the runway with more power at least..maybe i am wrong.. or is there another reason…
Good points
From eye witnesses the plane came in low and slow. The plane tried to pull up to make it over the A9 motorway, but as itdid the tail dropped loosing further speed. Following that the plane seemed to have stalled, and ended up in the grass field betwen the A9 motorway and the A200 motorway
This could have been loss of power?
Metar 250955z 21010kt 4500 Br Bkn007 Ovc008 05/04 Q1027 Tempo 2500
So what are we dealing with in here? From what I could read, no fire so that makes me think of fuel shortage... But nobody is metnionning the fact that engines could have shut down prior to impact... Any hint?
thanks Goose
i just saw it... and it doesn't seam there were a lots of wind either!
Well we'll see what will come out of the investigation!
Even if it was, the aircraft stalled due to powerloss, and I believe that the plane may had a fuel leak, because it is clearly a fact that the plane had no, or little fuel left, because the plane didn't cought fire and they didn't smell any kerosine.
So, the plane had a fuel leak, and on final approach they run out of fuel and lost enginethrust due to low or no fuel, and was loosing altitude quickly, and just when the pilots tried to pull out of the dive they stalled when the speed came to 0 and letterly fell out of the sky, as we see in the pictures that the trial left by the aircraft was as big as the plane itself, so it fell out of the sky and slipped away a little bit because of the muddy ground.
The pilots could also known they were out of fuel and tried to make an emergency landing on the muddy land, which was discussed here in Holland on television.... But the aproach seemd very normal, till 10 second before impact when they fell into a free-fall.
But we'll hear the results of the voicerecorder and datarecorders tomorow, then we'll know if the pilots tried to land the plane on the mud or tried to pull out of the stall/dive and fell down, or both...
We'll see,
Although everything is possible....it seams a little bit strange that nowadays Crews and FDs plan a relatively short trip like IST-AMS and the plane runs out of fuel just on short final... and as far as we know the Crew did not declare emergency/minimum fuel (at least 30' prior commencing the approach!). FMCs will recall your attention if your fuel on board is not enoght!
The 737NG "historically" never had fuel leak problem and even if, you have plenty of altenate in the IST-AMS leg and TK has procedure either for cruise checks (fuel check during cruise) and for diversion to an alternate for technical difficulties.
The downdraft hypothesis is still one possible scenario, expecially if the plane was flying really "close" to Vref!
... or maybe a double eng flame-out due to bird-strike?!?
Reconstruction using flight sim
http://www.youtube.com/blenderpedia
I think this photo really highlights the significant damage done on impact...OMG!!
Source http://www.rtl.nl/
Asking about the fuel issue, I was more thinking about a crew thinking that "they'll make it" which is by the way some basic CRM behavior rather than lack of alternates...
A bird strike sounds unlikely, first of all, coz that would have been reported. I also have doubts about the emergency landing... Ground hit would have been longer.
The best thing to do is probably to wait for the DFDR datas to be published.
1.Fuel contamination?!? Maybe but 0.5 NM from TD you must be pretty unlucky!
2. Engine problem related to the autothrottle sys?!? Maybe but the Crew are trained to disconnect the A/T and A/P and fly the plane like in the old days! One concern could be if the Crew were already visual with the rwy!
3. Engine malfunction capable to generate a loss of thrust on both engine at the same time?!? Maybe but without a previous seriuous CAUTION/WARNING in the EICAS?
Still ....
That's an interesting pics!
In neither case was the weather on approach a challenge, given that Schipols runways that have first class navigation aids and high intensity approach and runway lighting. Plus the crew were already visual with the runway.
Bird strike, i very much doubt....there would have been reports from other aircraft of birds in the area...
I think it's all down to loss of power...looks like they needed thrust and the engines did not respond....have we any pilots on here that can give their opinion??
The aircraft was grounded for repairs on the 23rd Feb...after the crew detected a problem with the "Master Caution Light" just before take off.
The crash seen from a police helicopter