Experts investigate cause of Turkish crash

Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 10:02 am

Several questions remain unanswered a day after a Turkish Airlines plane crashed at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport leaving 9 people including 3 pilots dead.

Air accident specialists have already recovered the plane’s black box flight recorder and investigators are now attempting to figure out the cause of the crash, which left the Boeing 737 aircraft in three pieces.

The plane’s flight data recorders have been found and will be analyzed by experts.

Experts said that crash landing in the muddy field might 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.

Having reached its destination, the plane would have used up a major portion of its fuel.

Investigators will explore a wide range of possible causes of the crash, ranging from weather-related factors such as wind shear or icing, to fuel starvation, navigational errors, pilot fatigue or bird strikes.

Turkish Airlines chief Temel Kotil said the captain, Hasan Tahsin, was very experienced and a former air force pilot.

Turkish officials said the plane was built in 2002 and last underwent thorough maintenance on December 22.

Turkish Airlines has had several serious crashes since 1974, when 360 people died in the crash of a DC-10 near Paris after a cargo door came off.

More recently, in 2003, 75 died when an RJ-100 missed the runway in heavy fog in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir.

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

Experts investigate cause of Turkish crash

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