A Libyan Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330 from South Africa disintegrated on landing at Tripoli airport on Wednesday, killing 105 people, but leaving a Dutch child as the sole miracle survivor.
Libyan transport minister Mohammed Ali Zidan said the survivor is in hospital. The Dutch foreign ministry said at The Hague that the child was undergoing surgery at the al-Sabia hospital for broken bones.
Ministry spokeswoman Ozlem Canel said the government could not confirm that the child was Dutch. The age too could not be confirmed, with reports putting it at eight, nine and 10. “Hopefully, when the operation is over and we are able to see the child, then we will be able to confirm the nationality,” Canel said.
European Union parliament president Jerzy Buzek hailed news of the survival. “I have been informed that an eight-year-old child survived, which, given this tragic event, is truly a miracle,” he said in Brussels.
Annelies Tichelaar, a spokeswoman for the Dutch Motorists’ Association ANWB, which has an emergency assistance service for Dutch people abroad, said, “We are talking about whether it is possible if the child can come back to Holland soon and who will take care of the child.”
Dutch broadcaster NOS showed footage of the survivor with facial bruises in hospital. A doctor said the child was a girl with several broken bones but “all important organs (were) in working order”. The Dutch daily Telegraaf said the child had been travelling with parents and an 11-year-old sibling.
Last June, a 14-year-old girl survived after a Yemeni airliner with 153 people on board crashed in the Indian Ocean.
