Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Afriqiyah Airways
Afriqiyah Airways - Credit: Senohrabek / DepositPhotos - License: DepositPhotos
Crime
Tripoli
Libya
plane crash
Afriqiyah Airways
commemoration
Afriqiyah Airways 771
Toine van de Sande
Tuesday, 12 May 2020 - 09:32
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

NL virtually commemorates 10th anniversary of Tripoli plane crash

Exactly 10 years ago today, Afriqiyah Airways flight 771 crashed near the airport of Tripoli, Libya. 103 people, including 70 Dutch were killed in the plane crash. Only a 9-year-old boy from Tilburg survived. Due to the coronavirus, the annual commemoration at the monument in Nieuwegein can not happen. The disaster will therefore be commemorated online.

The Airbus A330-202 was flying from Johannesburg in South Africa to London Gatwick, with a stopover in Tripoli on 12 May 2010, NU.nl reports. There were 93 passengers and 11 crew members on board. At around 6:00 a.m., the plane crashed one kilometer from the runway at the Tripoli airport. 70 Dutch people, 13 people from Libya, 13 South Africans, two Belgians, two Austrians, one German, one Brit, one Frenchman, and one Zimbabwean were killed. Only 9-year-old Ruben from Tilburg survived.

Ruben, now nearly 20 years old, is doing well, his grandfather Toine van de Sande told Omroep Brabant. "He will not become a top sportsman, but he functions well," Van de Sande said. He called it a "formidable" challenge that Ruben managed to grow up normally, outside the public eye. "He is doing well at school. And he looks at the girls, so all is fine."

The commemoration on Tuesday afternoon will happen in the form of a YouTube video, first only visible to the relatives and loved ones of the people who died in the crash, Van de Sande, also the chairman of Stichting Vliegramp Tripoli, explained to the broadcaster. The video will be released at 5:00 p.m. After the the loved ones commemorated the victims, the video will be released for everyone, he said.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Community service demanded for police officer who accidentally shot a suspect
  • Feyenoord lose in Madrid to Atletico
  • Amsterdam commemorates 31st anniversary of El Al plane crash in Bijlmer
  • Lithuanian man killed after being run over by combine harvester in corn field
  • Cabinet to change domain names for government sites over cybercrime concerns
  • Dutch automaker Lightyear shifts focus from solar cars to solar panels for EV’s

Top stories

  • Rotterdam shooting suspect accused of 3 counts of murder, arson; Glock handgun found
  • Prince Bernhard's membership card for Hitler's party found in his own archives
  • Parliament pushes to to ban breeding, owning bite-dangerous dogs
  • Air France-KLM buys 19.9% shares in struggling competitor SAS
  • One killed, two missing after boat capsizes in Noord-Brabant
  • Teen parents convicted of leaving baby to die in underground Amsterdam dumpster

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content