Turkish plane crash: Witnesses

Passengers and eyewitnesses have been describing what they saw when a Turkish Airlines plane crashed on landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport.

EYEWITNESSES

Tomas Friedhoff, a local student, was cycling in the area when he saw the plane come down.

He told the BBC that he realised something was wrong when he could see that the plane was flying very low but he could not hear any engine noise.

"It completely lost propulsion or couldn't glide any more, and you clearly saw it come down several tens of metres and come to a quite sudden stop," he said.

"The plane was nose up and the tail section was at a 45-degree angle. Seconds after the crash people started exiting through the tail section - 15 to 20 people, all of them, of course, frightened."

The plane isn't that far from the runway so I think it wasn't going that fast or it wasn't that high to really make a big impact Jonathan Nip

Mr Friedhoff said that minutes after getting out of the plane, some survivors went back in to help other injured passengers.

Rena Lubbers lives in Zwanenburg, a village about 500m from where the plane crashed. He was on his way to work when he saw the crash happen.

He said it looked like the plane had been gliding, with its nose higher than the rest. Then it looked like a "rock falling from the sky".

Mr Lubbers could not get to the crash site to help as there was a stretch of water in between, but he also saw about 30 people get out on to the wings, and then saw several people go back to rescue others.

'Strange sound'

Jonathan Nip, who lives close to the airport, told the BBC he had rushed outside when he heard the crash.

He said the aeroplane, with its wings, front and rear end broken off, was lying in the field.

I saw one engine that was burning but the fire died quickly Randy Cordes

"There are about 50 ambulances, a lot of fire trucks, a couple of helicopters, emergency helicopters, a lot of police, a lot of sirens," he said.

"It wasn't really a big crash, or a loud noise because the plane isn't that far from the runway. So I think it wasn't going that fast or it wasn't that high to really make a big impact."

Salesman Rick Den Dulk arrived at the scene about 10 minutes after the crash. He told the BBC he had seen people walking off the plane and could tell they were injured as they were not walking normally.

He could see lots of fire engines at the scene but no sign of fire.

Randy Cordes, 14, told Reuters he heard a "loud and strange sound" and thought it had been a car crash.

"I saw one engine that was burning but the fire died quickly," he said.

'Panic'

Nikolai van der Smagt works for a telecom company near the airport, and drove past the site moments after the crash.

He told the BBC the plane was lying in three pieces and surrounded by large clouds of brown dust and grey smoke.

"The first people were just getting off the plane and they looked confused. There was a lot of dust, but no fire," he said.

They said there was panic on board, incredible, people were shouting: 'Get us out of here!' Relative of passengers

Relatives of those on board the plane were waiting to hear news of the survivors.

Nilufer Akbas, whose brother had been on board the plane, told AP she had managed to speak to him on someone else's mobile telephone and had confirmed that he was all right.

"Everything is under control and we are getting the necessary information here," she said.

Another relative at Schiphol airport said he had managed to speak to his children and other family members who had been on board.

"They said there was panic on board, incredible, people were shouting: 'Get us out of here! Get us out of here!'" he told Dutch media.

PASSENGERS

Kerem Uzel told Turkey's NTV news channel the plane had been at an altitude of about 600m (2,000 feet) when passengers heard an announcement that they were landing.

"We suddenly descended a great distance as if the plane fell into turbulence. The plane's tail hit the ground. It slid from the side of the motorway into the field," he said.

We thought we were caught in turbulence. We did not understand in that shock how the plane crashed Huseyin Sumer

Passenger Tuncer Mutluhan, who works for a Turkish bank in the Netherlands, told NTV it felt like the plane had fallen "into a void".

"The plane lost control, suddenly plunged and crashed," he said. "It all happened in three or five seconds. There was panic after that."

Huseyin Sumer said passengers thought the pilot was joking when he said they were landing.

"We thought we were caught in turbulence. We did not understand in that shock how the plane crashed," Turkey's Hurriyet news website quoted him as saying.

He said some passengers were screaming in panic but the crash had happened very quickly.

One unidentified passenger said the first thing he had done was collect any children who were walking around in the plane.

"That's the first thing you're thinking about. We immediately brought the children outside the plane," he told Dutch media.

Another said he had been scared he would not see his children again, which, he said, was "the most scary experience".