TRIPOLI, May 15 (AFP) -The Dutch boy who was the sole survivor of a Libyan plane crash has been told his parents were killed and will return home Saturday, as investigators said the pilot reported no faults before the jet went down.
Dutch foreign ministry spokesman Christoph Prommersberger told AFP on Friday that nine-year-old Ruben van Assouw boy would be accompanied home “by his uncle and aunt and the doctor treating him.”They are set to leave Tripoli at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) for a destination in the Netherlands the ministry refused to disclose.
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| An image grab taken from footage broadcast by Libyan TV on May 14, 2010 shows Ruben van Assouw, who was the only survivor from the Libyan plane crash. AFP |
The Dutch federation of tour operators said the plane would land at the Eindhoven military airport.
The boy's aunt and uncle said that Ruben has been told his parents and 11-year-old brother died in Wednesday's crash that killed a total of 103 people.
“We have explained to Ruben exactly what happened. He knows that his parents and his brother are dead,” they said in a statement read to media in Tripoli.
The statement said the boy was doing well under the circumstances and had seen the flowers and messages of support sent to him.
“The time ahead will be a difficult period for us,” the statement said. “We hope that the media will respect our privacy.”Earlier Ruben told a Dutch newspaper he was “fine” but could remember nothing of the crash.
“My name is Ruben and I am from Holland,” Telegraaf newspaper reported on a telephone conversation with the only survivor of the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330 that disintegrated on landing at Tripoli airport.
“I am fine, but my legs hurt a lot,” the boy told a reporter from the newspaper on the mobile phone of one of his doctors.
“I am in a hospital,” Ruben said. “I don't know how I got here, I don't know anything more. I really want to go home.”Siddiq ben Dilla, a doctor who operated on the boy's smashed legs, said his condition was improving. |
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