AMSTERDAM — Investigators are examining turbulence as one of the possible causes of the Turkish Airlines crash that killed nine people and injured more than 100 near Amsterdam’s main airport, a spokesman said Saturday.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Authority investigation team, also said that the wreckage that has lain in a muddy field since it plunged out of the sky Wednesday one mile short of the runway could be moved this evening.
A Turkish pilots’ group claimed that turbulence from a large plane landing at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport shortly before the doomed flight, which was carrying 135 passengers and crew from Istanbul, may have caused the crash.
Turkey Airline Pilots’ Association Secretary-General Savas Sen said late Friday that a large Boeing 757 had landed at Schiphol Airport two minutes earlier. Sen said that plane most likely created “wake turbulence” that hampered the Turkish aircraft’s landing.
Wake turbulence forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air.
“All possible causes are (being) investigated and turbulence is known to have caused problems in the past, so you never know,” Sanders said.
The investigators on Saturday continued to analyze flight data and cockpit recordings retrieved from the Boeing 737-800’s “black boxes” and hope to be able to give a preliminary cause of the crash this week.
In Istanbul, the head of Turkish Airlines’ board paid tribute to the pilots at their funerals.
Candan Karlitekin said that, of the 135 people on board, 126 survived due to the pilots’ skills.
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