Update: Crash of Flight 1951

A new theory has emerged as regards the crash of a Turkish Airlines twinjet on Feb. 25 at Schipol Airport. Whereas speculation has centered on engine stalls, fuel starvation and a bird strike, Turkish pilots speculate that wake turbulence created by another airliner landing at Amsterdam just ahead of the Turkish Airlines passenger jet may be the most likely reason it crashed. A Boeing 757 appeared to have landed on the same runway just two minutes before the Turkish Airlines (THY) plane, the Turkish pilots' association (TALPA) told a news conference. Wake turbulence, an air turbulence created by a pair of vortices trailing in the wake of an aircraft's wing tips, could have hit the descending Turkish plane, preventing it from continuing to fly, the group said. A Dutch Safety Board spokesman said wake turbulence will be investigated. "We look at all options and we certainly are not excluding this one," spokesman Fred Sanders said.

TheTurkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 (TC-JGE) crashed short of landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Feb. 25, killing nine of the 135 people aboard (128 passenger and seven crew) and injuring more than 50 others. The accident, which happened in good weather, killed both of the pilots flying the GE/Snecma CFM-56-powered jetliner and a junior pilot observing. Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul was on final approach to land when the twinjet slammed into a muddy field and broke into three pieces. Media reports quote witnesses saying that the commercial transport on final suddenly dropped “like a stone” about 650 feet short of the airport’s perimeter fence. The number of fatalities might have been higher had it not been for the fact that there was no post-impact fire.