A Turkish Airlines plane carrying 135 people slammed into a muddy field while attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport in misty weather, according to the AP.  Nine people were killed and more than 50 were injured, many seriously.

The Boeing 737-800 broke into three pieces when it hit the ground short of a runway at Schiphol Airport . The fuselage split in two, close to the cockpit, and the tail broke off. The crash site is about two miles from the runway.

Survivor Huseyin Sumer told Turkish NTV television he crawled to safety out of a crack in the fuselage.  "We were about to land, we could not understand what was happening, some passengers screamed in panic but it happened so fast," Sumer said. He said the crash was over in five to 10 seconds.

This latest crash means that four commercial airplanes have been involved in serious accidents since December.  What is going on with air travel? How dangerous is flying? And what can you do to save yourself in a crash?

This latest accident - and terrible loss of life - raise a few thoughts:

1. The Myth of Hopelessness: Contrary to what people believe, most passengers survive plane crashes. The key statistic: 95.7 percent of passengers involved in airplane accidents survive. In the most serious crashes, 76 percent make it out alive.

2. The Myth of Panic: Contrary to Hollywood's depiction of a disaster, plane crashes don’t result in pandemonium and bedlam. Instead, it’s organized chaos as people band together to survive.

3. The Myth of Helplessness: Contrary to what many people believe, you can significantly increase your chance of surviving a crash by doing a few key things (eg. sit within five rows of an exit; pay attention to the safety briefing; be especially alert during the first 3 minutes and last 8 minutes of flight when 80 percent of the accidents happen). Experts say that 40 percent of the passengers who perish in crashes could have lived if they had known what to do.  Learn the six secrets of surviving plane crashes by clicking here.

4. Domestic vs. International Travel: According to Arnold Barnett, an MIT professor and expert on aviation safety, international air travel has grown considerably safer over the last decade, but the carriers from the former Communist bloc and Third World nations averaged eight times the risk of death per flight than airlines from industrialized First World nations.  In short, flying in the US is safer than flying overseas, especially outside the industrialized world. For more, click here.