Boeing: 2 dead, 1 hurt in crash
AMSTERDAM - At least two of the four local Boeing employees who were aboard a Turkish Airlines jet that crashed Wednesday near Amsterdam were killed the accident, and a third was injured, Boeing has confirmed.
Boeing has not named these three employees. However, KOMO News has learned Michael T. Hemmer of Federal Way was alive after the crash but was hospitalized with injuries, according to a close family friend who did not wish to be identified.
She said that Hemmer had undergone surgery, and that his wife Shirley and his brother were being flown to Amsterdam by Boeing to see him.
The fate of the fourth Boeing worker has not been confirmed, Boeing said.
In addition to Hemmer, Boeing has also identified four Boeing employees on the flight as Ronald A. Richey and John Salman, Ricky E. Wilson. Boeing said they are from the Puget Sound area of Washington state, and were traveling on company business.
Boeing is flying the wives of at least two of those three crash victims to Amsterdam as well, KOMO News has learned.
One of them, the wife of John Salman, was asked to bring photographs of her husband, because Boeing and the Dutch autorities can't locate him. Salman is the father of small children.
It is not known whether Salman is the fourth employee about whom Boeing has yet to comment.
A Dutch mayor said Thursday that five Turks and four Americans were killed when the jet slammed into a field near Amsterdam's main airport.
Boeing could not immediately be reached Thursday for a reaction or say whether any of its employees were among the dead.
Family friends said Hemmer, who works in Boeing's defense division, is very active in the community. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus' St. Joseph Council and the St. Vincent de Paul Parish.
At the crash scene, officials said engine trouble may have caused the Boeing 737-800 jet to crash.
Flight TK1951 from Istanbul crashed about one mile (1.5 kilometers) short of the runway at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday morning, smashing into three pieces and spraying luggage and debris across a field. It was carrying 135 passengers and crew.
Chief investigator Pieter van Vollenhoven said, in remarks quoted by Dutch state television NOS, that the jetliner had fallen almost directly from the sky, which pointed toward the plane's engines having stopped. He said a reason for that had not yet been established.
Spokeswoman Sandra Groenendal of the Dutch Safety Authority confirmed his remarks and added that engine failure on the was still only "one of the possible scenarios" for the crash.
Van Vollenhoven said an analysis of the plane's flight data recorders in Paris could be completed as early as Friday, but his agency would probably not make a preliminary finding until next week.
"We hope to have a firmer grip as soon as possible," he said, adding that the information retrieved from the recorders was of high quality.
Survivors say engine noise seemed to stop, the plane shuddered and then simply fell out of the sky tail-first. Witnesses on the ground said the plane dropped from about 300 feet (90 meters).
Haarlemmermeer mayor Theo Weterings said the names of the victims would not be released until the bodies have been formally identified.
"The relatives have been informed" of the deaths, he told the Associated Press. "We have arranged some help for them."
He also said Thursday that investigators now say 135 passengers and crew were on the flight, not 134 as previously believed, which was one reason it had taken so long to account for the dead.
At the crash site Thursday, investigators took detailed photos of the wreckage, trying to piece together why the plane lost speed and crashed.
One survivor, Henk Heijloo, said the last message he heard from the captain was for flight crew to take their seats. He said it took him time to realize the landing had gone wrong.
"We were coming in at an odd angle, and I felt the pilot give the plane more gas," he said. He thought the pilot might have been trying to abort the landing, because the nose came up.
Then he realized the landing was too rough to be normal and a moment later he felt an enormous crash.
He walked away apparently uninjured, but his body began aching Thursday, he said.
Turkish Airlines chief Temel Kotil said the captain, Hasan Tahsin Arisan, was an experienced former air force pilot. Turkish officials said the plane was built in 2002.
Turkish Airlines issued a statement Thursday denying reports that the plane had had technical problems in the days before the accident.
It confirmed the plane had undergone routine maintenance on Feb. 19, and that it had to delay a flight Feb. 23 to replace a faulty caution light.
A retired pilot who listened to a radio exchange between air traffic controllers and the aircraft shortly before the crash said he didn't hear anything unusual.
"Everything appeared normal," said Joe Mazzone, a former Delta Air Lines captain. "They were given clearance to descend to 7,000 feet."
The recording was posted by the Web site LiveATC.net, which captures air traffic exchanges by monitoring scanners near airports.
"Turkish 1951 descending from level 7-0," one of the pilots said as they neared the airport, referring to the plane's altitude of 7,000 feet.
The controller cleared the plane to descend to an altitude of 4,000 feet, where it would intercept an electronic beam guiding the plane to the runway.
The controller then read out the proper radio frequency for requesting clearance to land. "Turkish 1951 contact the tower 11827, bye bye," he said
"Thank you, sir," the pilot said. There was no indication of trouble in his voice.
Weather at the airport at the time was cloudy with a slight drizzle.
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Associated Press Writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Airlines Writer Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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Boeing has not named these three employees. However, KOMO News has learned Michael T. Hemmer of Federal Way was alive after the crash but was hospitalized with injuries, according to a close family friend who did not wish to be identified.
She said that Hemmer had undergone surgery, and that his wife Shirley and his brother were being flown to Amsterdam by Boeing to see him.
The fate of the fourth Boeing worker has not been confirmed, Boeing said.
In addition to Hemmer, Boeing has also identified four Boeing employees on the flight as Ronald A. Richey and John Salman, Ricky E. Wilson. Boeing said they are from the Puget Sound area of Washington state, and were traveling on company business.
Boeing is flying the wives of at least two of those three crash victims to Amsterdam as well, KOMO News has learned.
One of them, the wife of John Salman, was asked to bring photographs of her husband, because Boeing and the Dutch autorities can't locate him. Salman is the father of small children.
It is not known whether Salman is the fourth employee about whom Boeing has yet to comment.
A Dutch mayor said Thursday that five Turks and four Americans were killed when the jet slammed into a field near Amsterdam's main airport.
Boeing could not immediately be reached Thursday for a reaction or say whether any of its employees were among the dead.
Family friends said Hemmer, who works in Boeing's defense division, is very active in the community. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus' St. Joseph Council and the St. Vincent de Paul Parish.
At the crash scene, officials said engine trouble may have caused the Boeing 737-800 jet to crash.
Flight TK1951 from Istanbul crashed about one mile (1.5 kilometers) short of the runway at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday morning, smashing into three pieces and spraying luggage and debris across a field. It was carrying 135 passengers and crew.
Chief investigator Pieter van Vollenhoven said, in remarks quoted by Dutch state television NOS, that the jetliner had fallen almost directly from the sky, which pointed toward the plane's engines having stopped. He said a reason for that had not yet been established.
Spokeswoman Sandra Groenendal of the Dutch Safety Authority confirmed his remarks and added that engine failure on the was still only "one of the possible scenarios" for the crash.
Van Vollenhoven said an analysis of the plane's flight data recorders in Paris could be completed as early as Friday, but his agency would probably not make a preliminary finding until next week.
"We hope to have a firmer grip as soon as possible," he said, adding that the information retrieved from the recorders was of high quality.
Survivors say engine noise seemed to stop, the plane shuddered and then simply fell out of the sky tail-first. Witnesses on the ground said the plane dropped from about 300 feet (90 meters).
Haarlemmermeer mayor Theo Weterings said the names of the victims would not be released until the bodies have been formally identified.
"The relatives have been informed" of the deaths, he told the Associated Press. "We have arranged some help for them."
He also said Thursday that investigators now say 135 passengers and crew were on the flight, not 134 as previously believed, which was one reason it had taken so long to account for the dead.
At the crash site Thursday, investigators took detailed photos of the wreckage, trying to piece together why the plane lost speed and crashed.
One survivor, Henk Heijloo, said the last message he heard from the captain was for flight crew to take their seats. He said it took him time to realize the landing had gone wrong.
"We were coming in at an odd angle, and I felt the pilot give the plane more gas," he said. He thought the pilot might have been trying to abort the landing, because the nose came up.
Then he realized the landing was too rough to be normal and a moment later he felt an enormous crash.
He walked away apparently uninjured, but his body began aching Thursday, he said.
Turkish Airlines chief Temel Kotil said the captain, Hasan Tahsin Arisan, was an experienced former air force pilot. Turkish officials said the plane was built in 2002.
Turkish Airlines issued a statement Thursday denying reports that the plane had had technical problems in the days before the accident.
It confirmed the plane had undergone routine maintenance on Feb. 19, and that it had to delay a flight Feb. 23 to replace a faulty caution light.
A retired pilot who listened to a radio exchange between air traffic controllers and the aircraft shortly before the crash said he didn't hear anything unusual.
"Everything appeared normal," said Joe Mazzone, a former Delta Air Lines captain. "They were given clearance to descend to 7,000 feet."
The recording was posted by the Web site LiveATC.net, which captures air traffic exchanges by monitoring scanners near airports.
"Turkish 1951 descending from level 7-0," one of the pilots said as they neared the airport, referring to the plane's altitude of 7,000 feet.
The controller cleared the plane to descend to an altitude of 4,000 feet, where it would intercept an electronic beam guiding the plane to the runway.
The controller then read out the proper radio frequency for requesting clearance to land. "Turkish 1951 contact the tower 11827, bye bye," he said
"Thank you, sir," the pilot said. There was no indication of trouble in his voice.
Weather at the airport at the time was cloudy with a slight drizzle.
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Associated Press Writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Airlines Writer Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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