AMSTERDAM, Feb 25: A Turkish Airlines passenger plane with 134 people aboard crashed while trying to land at Amsterdam´s Schiphol airport on Wednesday, but Turkish officials said there were no fatalities. [break]
"The aircraft crashed in a field outside the airport perimeter," a Schiphol official said. "All rescue operations are in full swing at the moment."Images shown on Dutch television showed the plane on the ground, with the tail section of the fuselage broken off, and a wide crack in the fuselage just behind cockpit. The jetliner had not caught fire.
"We are in the middle of a field now, approximately 5-6 km from the airport," Survivor Mustafa Bahcecioglu told Turkish broadcaster Channel 24.
"The majority of the passengers are injured but there are people who are not injured. Around 30 ambulances have come here ," he said.
Initial reports said one person had been killed and 20 injured. But Turkish Airlines Chief Executive Temel Kotil said nobody on board the flight had died.
Turkish Airlines Chairman Candan Karlitekin told a news conference in Istanbul there were 127 passengers, including a baby, on board and seven crew.
"There are injured passengers at the back of the plane but there are no confirmed casualties," Karlitekin said.
The plane, on a flight from Istanbul, broke up when it hit the ground.
Survivor Huseyin Sumer told CNN Turk by telephone: "The plane split into three parts. We are calling people to say the situation is not very serious but there might be casualties on the front side of the pane."
Airport officials said the crashed jetliner was a Boeing 737-800, flight TK 1951 from Istanbul.
Turkish Airlines said its staff were headed to the scene of the crash."
The plane crashed in light fog some distance from the terminals at Schiphol, which is 20 km (12 miles) southwest of Amsterdam´s center.
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