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:::Minor edit: I have merged the two sentences, since they both said that the accident "happened very close to the Schiphol Airport". [[User:Aec is away|Aecis·(away)]] [[User talk:Aecis|<sup>talk</sup>]] 01:22, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
:::Well it seems that late help is more strong viewpoint.[[User:Yousaf465|User:Yousaf465]] ([[User talk:Yousaf465|talk]])
NRC Handelsblad, a major Dutch newspaper, claims that help arrived relatively swift, but when actually reading the article, it contradicts that statement. The crash happened at about 10:31 CET in the morning, but at 12:00 CET ambulances were still waiting around. Traffic jams resulted due to the large number of vehicles being deployed, despite a nearby highway and a nearby main road being cut off for normal traffic so it could be used exclusively by emergency traffic.
"De hulpverlening komt vrij snel na het ongeluk op gang. In totaal veertig ambulances zijn betrokken bij het afvoeren van gewonden. Het toestel ligt, ten opzichte van de Polderbaan, aan de andere kant van snelweg A9, nabij Zwanenburg.
Het afvoeren van gewonden verloopt chaotisch. De weggetjes waarover de gewonden worden afgevoerd, zijn smal. Rond het middaguur stonden er zeker acht ambulances op elkaar te wachten op de Kromme Spieringweg bij Zwanenburg. Ook tractoren en twee Schipholbussen zijn ingezet om gewonden af te voeren. De ambulancemedewerkers bij het toestel stralen rust uit. "
Translation: "Emergency services respond relatively quickly after the accident. A total of 40 ambulances are involved in carrying off the injured [passengers]. The plane lies, relative to the Polderbaan (runway the plane was attempting to land on) on the other side of highway A9, near Zwanenburg.
Transport of the injured is chaotic. The little roads used to carry them off, are narrow. Around noon there were at least 8 ambulances waiting for eachother at the Kromme Spieringweg near Zwanenburg. Tractors and two Schipholbuses (normally used to ferry passengers from and to the airport) are deployed to carry off the wounded. Ambulance personell near the airplane look very calm."
If it took well over one and a half hours to evacuate all of the injured passengers, then that is not such a fast response, considering the fact that Amsterdam is nearby and ambulances are supposed to be on the scene within 15 minutes, even in rural areas.
Another article, on Nu.nl, points out that the municipality of Haarlemmermeer has only been solely responsible for emergency response in case of a crash at Schiphol sincs 2006. Before that, it was already the responsible authority, but emergency services would also respond from Amsterdam. This was thought to be a recipe for trouble, so they changed this manner of operation. As a result, emergency response is now -only- from the emergency services from the region Kennemerland, instead of also including Amsterdam-Amstelland, the region of Amsterdam. Considering that the municipality of Haarlemmermeer has a population of less than 150,000 and Amsterdam is the nation's capitol, with over 750,000 inhabitants, local authorities do not have the same amount of resources and are probably not used to any large emergency. In addition, during exercises the autorities performed below the required standards. Very poorly, in 2006, quite a lot better, but still not without reservations, in 2008. http://www.nu.nl/vliegramp-schiphol/1923447/vliegtuigcrash-enorme-test-voor-hulpdiensten.html
I personally don't see how any huge emergency at Schiphol could be left solely to the local emergency responders. After all, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer is comparitively small and in -any- huge emergency it is policy to just alert neighbouring emergency departments anyway.
== BBC as source ==
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