Faulty instrument blamed for Dutch airliner crash

A faulty altimeter caused last week’s Turkish Airlines crash that killed nine people in the Netherlands, investigators said today.

The Dutch Safety Authority said the plane was landing on automatic pilot and the problem with the altimeter, a device that measures altitude, led to a loss of airspeed before the crash.

The Boeing 737-800 carrying 135 passengers and crew crashed into a field less than a mile short of the runway at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport as it came into land.

Chief investigator Pieter van Vollenhoven said the jet had twice before experienced problems with its altimeter. Boeing has been instructed to warn customers, he said.