HAARLEMMERLIEDE, Netherlands — The host of a popular Dutch television show was half-dozing Wednesday with her head against the window of the Turkish Airlines jetliner when she was shocked awake by the sight of the ground looming up through the mist and drizzle.
There was no warning from the cockpit when the Boeing 737-800 with 134 people aboard slammed into a muddy field about 2 miles short of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, breaking into pieces.
The fuselage tore in two near the cockpit, and the tail was ripped off. Despite the catastrophic impact, the wreckage did not burn, and nearly everyone — 125 people — survived. The nine dead included both pilots.
Investigators said an apprentice pilot also was among the dead.
TV host Jihad Alariachi was among those who walked away unscathed, scrambling out of the wreckage through emergency exits or cracks in the shattered fuselage.
“The ground was coming nearby, really nearby,” Alariachi told Dutch radio station BNR. “Then we braked really hard. . . . The nose went up. And then we bounced . . . with the nose aloft.”
She and her sister escaped through an exit “onto the wing, and then we were in a field, walking around,” she said, her nose bloodied and her shoes missing.
Survivor Mustafa Bahcec, his forehead bruised, recalled: “The back of the plane was completely gone. It was a bloodbath, a terrible sight.”
More than 50 people were injured, about half of them seriously.
Authorities said the toll could have been far higher if the plane had not gone down in mud, which lessened the impact and helped avert a fire in the ruptured fuel tanks.
In addition, having neared its destination, the plane had used up most of its fuel, lessening the chances of a fuel-driven fire. Authorities would not say whether the plane sent out a distress call before the crash.
“The fact that the plane landed on a soft surface and that there was no fire helped keep the number of fatalities low,” Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said, adding that it was “a miracle” there were not more casualties.
The head of the Dutch Safety Authority, Pieter van Vollenhoven, said the plane appeared to have lost speed before crashing, and witnesses said it dropped from about 300 feet. “You see that because of a lack of speed, it literally fell out of the sky,” he told NOS radio.
Four Boeing employees traveling on business were aboard the plane, according to Jim Proulx, a spokesman for the company. All four are based in the Seattle area, he said, but he would not provide further details until their families had been notified.
He said Boeing was sending a team to provide technical assistance to Dutch safety officials as they investigate. The plane’s flight-data recorders were recovered and were to be analyzed.
Experts say crashes involving modern airliners are more survivable because of engineering advances that have resulted in strengthened structures and fire-retardant technologies for cabin seats and furnishings, as well as better crew training.
The most dramatic example of passenger survival was the Hudson River landing last month of a US Airways Airbus A320 that lost engine power when it struck a flock of birds. All 155 passengers and crew lived despite the water landing.
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