On Wednesday 25 February 2009 a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed on some farmland, not far from the Schiphol Polderbaan. On 11 March, two weeks after the disaster, the investigation of the wreck was far-advanced enough for the salvaging to start.

Because the wreck lay in muddy farmland some preparations were necessary. Apart from bridges over some ditches, some emergency roads had to be constructed as well. In order to avoid that the heavy trucks would sink some sand was deposited.

During the crash the aircraft had broken into three pieces: tail, body and cockpit. The engines had also broken off. After severing the last remaining connection with the body the cockpit was loaded onto a low-loader on Thursday morning. That same day, due to explosion danger the kerosene was pumped from one of the wings. The engines had already been moved to a convenient location.

The next day a second wing was also pumped and then both wings could be removed. Next, the wings, engines and body were loaded. And finally, on Saturday, the tail was cut and loaded. The remaining scattered parts were also cleared that day.

On Sunday morning the transport to a hangar at Schiphol-East started. Of course the route had been thoroughly checked in advance. This way we already knew that the cockpit and body could never fit underneath the fly-over of exit Haarlem-Zuid. That is why a 160 ton crane lifted them from the low-loader, shifted them to the road above and reloaded the truck. In other places the street furniture (for example traffic lights and signs) were removed. Furthermore, as a precaution, two cars that constantly monitored whether everything indeed went smoothly accompanied the transport. At Schiphol-East all parts of the Boeing were unloaded.