Sad day for us Dutchies.

**Whitehouse** · May-12-10, 05:26 PM

This morning it was breaking news. An Airbus 330 crashed near the airport of Tripoli, Libya. Later on more bulletins were given and suddenly there was a mention of Dutch casualties. Later on it turned out there were 61 Dutch victims, and 106 in total.

After that was made public all public buildings were given the order to hoist the national colour on the building, flying it half-mast. In four weeks there's a general election. All preparations and political activities were put on hold for the moment.

Sad day indeed....

I hope that sole boy will make it. He must have lost his whole family.

In that respect there is a Detroit parallel. You will remember this better then I.

Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed on Aug. 16, 1987, leaving 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan as the lone survivor.
The plane had immediate problems during takeoff and hit a light pole near the end of the runway at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Mich. It then hit the roof of a building before slamming into several cars and light poles on a busy highway.
All six crew members and 148 of the passengers were killed, as well as two people on the ground. The NTSB attributed cause to the flight crew's failure to correctly set the flaps for takeoff.
Cecelia's parents and brother were killed in the crash. She was raised by relatives in Alabama, who kept her out of the public spotlight. Cichan reportedly graduated from the University of Alabama in 2006 with a degree in psychology.

Another sole survivor of an aircrash. She did alright.

Update;
It is reported that the boy is named Ruben van Assouw, an 8-year old boy living in the city of Tilburg. Together with his father Patrick [[40), his mother Trudy [[41) and his 11-year old brother Enzo he was in South Africa for a safari. An uncle and aunt will be travelling to Tripoli with a government appointed jetliner. This flight will be made with the PH-KBX, a Fokker 70, our equivalent of the Airforce One.