Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

I think that most people who know me, are aware of the fact that I'm not that keen on flying. Don't get me wrong: I will get on a plane, I have my fear under control. I just don't like flying. According to some psychologists it's because people don't like the fact that they are not in control. Whatever it may be, my heart skipped a beat this Wednesday when a plane from Turkish Airlines crashed about a mile short of the runway at Schiphol airport. Out of the 134 passengers 9 people died and 44 people got injured.
There is no official cause for the accident yet as investigations are still under way. But based on what is known so far, it seems the plane descended to fast and got into a stall situation. As a result it just dropped from the sky. It has also been confirmed that one of the three pilots was on his first training flight for a Boeing 737-800. It is unknown if he was flying the plane when it crashed.

Normally planes like this can land safely fully automatically using the ILS (Instrument Landing System), but a lot of pilots like to land a plane manually (they are required to do so a couple of times a year).

I consider it a miracle that not more people died. If you see what the plane looks like. A lot of photos can be found here (Dutch website). Even more amazing: one Dutch passenger on the plane survived two airplane accidents within one week. Another plane he was in a week before, skidded of the runway in Istanbul and ran into a light pole.

I'm not sure that I would ever get on a plane again if that would have been me.