Cause elusive as officials criticized

The leading Dutch aviation investigator said yesterday that no information would be disclosed about the cause of Wednesday’s ill-fated Turkish Airlines, or THY, flight 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam until next week.

Further information about the identity of casualties also remained under wraps when the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to press. The Turkish government, meanwhile, has come under fire for its conflicting announcements about the existence of casualties.

The cause of the crash, which killed nine and injured dozens of passengers, would not be announced until next week at the earliest, the investigator said. Determining who or what was responsible for the crash would take much longer. The black box of the plane has been sent to Paris to be analyzed, as Dutch authorities continue investigating the wreckage with various separate teams examining the engines and body of the plane. A team from the plane manufacturer, Boeing, was sent to Amsterdam to provide technical support to the investigation team.

Only the identities of the three pilots who died in the crash have been confirmed, while the other six victims remain anonymous, according to official statements reported by the private news channel NTV. The identities of those killed and injured would not be released to the press until the families of the victims had been notified, a Dutch official, Theo Weterings, said in a press meeting yesterday afternoon. In the Netherlands, the written permission of victim’s families is required in order to release their names to the press.

Meanwhile, seven injured passengers arrived yesterday afternoon in Istanbul.

Dutch authorities also said the health situation of six passengers was still critical and that it has been difficult to identify four of them. The nationalities of the majority of passengers, however, have been identified: 51 are Turkish citizens and 53 are Dutch citizens, including passengers of Turkish origin. There are also seven United States citizens, three British, one German, one Bulgarian, one Finn, one Italian and one Taiwanese citizen, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The crisis management after the Amsterdam crash, considered a failure, was an additional burden on the relatives of passengers on board, as they were shaken by the ever-changing reports about casualties.

Though two crisis tables were set up in Ankara and Istanbul, even top state officials reached hasty conclusions on the number of victims, often basing their statements on dubious accounts. "I spoke with Mr. Mustafa Bahçelioğlu, a surviving passenger, and he told me there have been three deaths," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at one point. "But my Transportation Minister reports one victim. May God bless that victim."

At 12:46 p.m., Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım had said, "the good news is that there are no victims, we dodged this one." Later accounts revealed that nine people died and scores were wounded.

Yıldırım denied yesterday that the ministry gave conflicting information about the accident. "All information we released was approved by the Dutch authorities. International experts agree that the number of victims is miraculously low for such an accident," he maintained. "The criticisms aim to wear down THY and Turkish civil aviation, which has scored significant successes in recent years."

The main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Parliamentary Group deputy leader Kemal Anadol said the accident was a reflection of a mentality that "sacrifices a camel on the apron." In December 2006, THY workers and maintenance chief Şükrü Can sacrificed a camel on an Istanbul airport ramp, or apron, to celebrate the delivery of eleven planes to a British company. THY manager Candan Karlıtekin and THY president Temel Kotil appeared on TV after Yıldırım and reported that there were no deaths "according to information they received."

Death toll belies official reports

The relief of the relatives was short-lived, however, as a Dutch TV station later claimed five passengers were dead. The Transportation Ministry backtracked from its earlier statement, saying some of the passengers taken to the hospital may have lost their lives. An official declaration from the Dutch authorities then reported nine people dead.

The chain of misreports continued in Ankara, this time with Transportation Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Suat Aka. In a statement to reporters, he explained the time and place of the plane crash, before reading a note passed to him. "According to the latest information I received, all passengers have been evacuated from the plane," he said. "There were no deaths."

Social expert and psychologist Şükrü Alkan told Daily News yesterday that the "vague information and failure in the flow of information on the developments raise doubts and suspicions over what is happening and increase the trauma faced especially by the relatives of the victims."

In a final statement posted on THY’s website, president Kotil argued that the company had taken all necessary measures after the incident, including setting up a crisis table. "Our only consolation is the low number of deaths," he said.

The Aviation Workers’ Union, or Hava-İş, issued a declaration hitting out at the THY management. "Fatalism evident in declarations thankful for the low number of deaths reveals that there is no mentality change at all," the statement said. "The accident should be a warning to THY and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation." THY and Star Alliance quickly withdrew the new THY commercial featuring Kevin Costner.