Crash plane engine trouble fears.

ENGINE trouble may be behind the Turkish Airlines crash in the Netherlands in which nine people died, the head of the agency investigating the accident said.

Flight TK1951, from Istanbul, crashed about one mile short of the runway at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport yesterday morning, smashing into three pieces and spraying luggage and debris across a field. It was carrying 134 passengers and crew.

The dead comprised five Turks and four Americans.

Investigator Pieter van Vollenhoven said, in comments quoted by Dutch state television NOS, that the Boeing 737-800 had fallen almost directly from the sky, which pointed toward the plane's engines having stalled. He said a reason for that had not yet been established.