A JOINT Dutch Belgian inquiry team began an investigation late last night into the crash of a Belgian army transport plane at a Dutch military base in Eindhoven, in the south of the country, which killed at least 32 people.
The head of the 100 strong force of firefighters who tackled the blaze, Mr Anton van Dijke, said it was still not clear how many had been aboard the US built Hercules C-130 aircraft.
"If there were 41 then we have accounted for everyone," he said. "But there could have been 42, in which case there is one missing." Mr Van Dijke added that judging from the injuries suffered by the victims, the fire must have been extremely fierce. Identification of the casualties would go on all night, he said.
A Netherlands army officer meanwhile told local television that the plane had made a normal landing approach to the Eindhoven base in the south of the country but had then broken in three pieces on touching down.
Two glider pilots circling the base at the same time said the plane appeared to swing wide over houses close to the runway before taking a nose dive from an altitude of 500 feet. It caught fire when it hit the ground but did not explode, they said.
The nine survivors were all seriously injured, and some were taken to hospitals specialising in treatment for burn victims.
The plane, which had a Belgian crew, was bringing a Dutch military band back from a Nato base in Villafranca in northern Italy. The band had been taking part in a military music festival in the city of Modena.
I crashed onto the military section of the airport, which also handles civilian traffic, at 6.00 p.m.
This was the second worst plane crash in the Netherlands in 60 years. The worst was in October 1992, when a Boeing of the Israeli airline El Al crashed into an apartment block in Amsterdam, killing 39 people on the ground and the four crew.