Nine-year-old plane crash survivor was on holiday to celebrate parents' anniversary
The nine-year-old survivor of the Tripoli plane crash has been named as Ruben van Assouw from Tilberg, his brother and parents perished after a holiday to celebrate his parents' ninth wedding anniversary ended in tragedy.
Ruben van Assouw inside the Al-Khadra Hospital in Tripoli Photo: Tripoli Post / Barcroft Media
The wreckage of Air Afriqiyah flight 771 Photo: AP
He has been named after relatives saw the television footage of him in a Libyan hospital.
Ruben survived but his brother Enzo, 11, was killed in the crash along with their mother Trudy, 41, and father Patrick, 40 who were returning from safari in South Africa after celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary as a family.
His grandmother, An van de Sande has confirmed that she had "received a telephone call" from officials to say the boy, being treated in a Libyan hospital, had named himself as Ruben.
She said that other family members had become alerted to the tragedy after seeing pictures of Ruben being treated by Libyan medics.
"We don't understand it. It's like we're in a movie," she said.
Ruben's uncle and aunt have now arrived in Tripoli on board a ministry plane and are being taken to hospital to see the boy.
Dutch officials said the child had undergone surgery for broken bones and his condition was not life-threatening.
A Dutch foreign ministry spokesman would not confirm the survivor's identity "until the two presumed family members have seen the child".
As soon as his health allows, he will be repatriated to the Netherlands.
The Dutch death toll may be about rise from 61.
De Telegraaf has reported that a lone traveller and a family of five boarded the plane at the last moment, taking the Dutch death toll to 67.
[ via Telegraph.co.uk ]
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