Dutch officials to release initial crash findings

The head of Dutch Safety Authority, Pieter van Vollenhoven presented on Wednesday the preliminary results of the official investigation into the black box recordings at a press conference in The Hague.

Flight TK-1951 from Istanbul crashed in short of the runway at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport last Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring 84 others. The Boeing 737-800 type plane was carrying 134 people, including seven crew members.

"The voice recordings and black boxes in the possession of the Dutch Safety Board indicate that irregularities occurred during the plane’s descent," Vollenhoeven told journalists, AFP reported. According to the Turkish translation from Dutch which was broadcast on Turkish TV channels, Vollenhoven also said a warning was issued to Boeing about possible faults found on the plane.When flying at about 1,950 feet (594 meteres) the plane's left radio altitude meter indicated the Boeing 737-800 was flying at minus 8 feet, prompting the automatic pilot to shut down the engines, he added.

"The crew initially did not react to these events," Vollenhoven said. When an alarm went off that the plane's speed would drop below the minimum, the pilots reacted and reignited the engines.

"But the plane was too low at 150 meters. As a consequence the plane crashed 1 kilometer before the runway," said van Vollenhoven.

PILOTS UNABLE TO SEE RUNWAY

Gas to the engines was reduced and the plane lost speed, decelerating until, at a height of 450 feet (150 meters) the plane was about to stall, and warning systems alerted the pilots.

"From the "black box" (data recorders) it appears that then the pilots immediately gave gas, full gas, however it was too late to recover," AP quoted him as saying.

Vollenhoeven said that although it is not unusual to land a plane on autopilot, the conversation recorded between the plane’s captain, first officer and an extra first officer on the flight, shows they had noticed the faulty altimeter but did not consider it a problem and did not react.

He also said that the pilots had also been unable to see the runway at the time the plane began its descent due to the weather conditions - cloudy with a light rain.

TURKEY’S REACTION

Turkey’s Civil Aviation Authority has demanded a copy of the initial report from the Netherlands, the transportation minister said.

"The incident has many aspects. It would be very wrong for us to make assumptions and blame anybody. We can't do that. The incident will be enlightened from all angles," Binali Yildirim was quoted as telling reporters by the Dogan News Agency.