Tripoli, May 13: A Dutch boy who miraculously survived a Libya plane crash that killed 103 people has come round after surgery for smashed legs and is in stable condition but confused, his doctor said Thursday.
“The child underwent several rounds of surgery to his legs. He had simple fractures and double fractures,” the doctor said on Libyan state television, which also showed pictures of the boy’s legs in casts.
“He woke up (late Wednesday night) and is in good condition,” the doctor said.
But he stressed that the boy was confused and “still is not reacting well to his surroundings.”
Libyan authorities identified the boy as a Dutch citizen and the official JANA news agency named him as Robben Van Achout — a transliteration from Arabic.
Dutch newspaper Babants Dagblad said the boy may be nine-year-old Ruben van Assouw from Tilburg in the southern Netherlands who, had been on safari in South Africa with his parents and his brother Enzo, 11.
“We received a telephone call” from officials to say that the boy, being treated in a Libyan hospital, mentioned the name “Ruben”, the paper said on Thursday citing his grandmother An van de Sande.
The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed meanwhile that two presumed family members of the injured child were on their way to Tripoli to make a formal identification of the boy.
Sixty-one Dutch citizens were believed to be among 103 people killed when an Afriqiyah Airways plane coming from Johannesburg disintegrated on landing around 6:00 am (0400 GMT) at Tripoli airport on Wednesday.
—Agencies