'Miracle' boy, 9, flies home after surviving crash that killed family

Nine-year-old Ruben van Assouw's survival of a crash that shattered the airliner into pieces has stunned doctors and given the tragedy at least one hopeful story.

The Afriqiyah Airways flight from South Africa hit the ground short of the runway at Tripoli on Wednesday, killing 103 people, including the boy's parents and 11-year-old brother.

Sadig Bendala, one of the doctors who treated the boy at a Tripoli hospital, accompanied him on the flight and said he was emotionally touched by his story.

"He's a special patient. He's a miracle," Bendala said before boarding the plane. "For sure I will have a good relationship with him for the rest of my life."

The boy was accompanied yesterday by an aunt and uncle who had flown to Libya to be at his bedside.

Hospital staff and Dutch embassy officials have sought to protect the boy's privacy, and as he was taken from the hospital on a stretcher his face was covered with a sheet to shield him from view of a throng of journalists.

Dutch Foreign Ministry officials would not say where the flight was bound.

A Dutch ministry official said: "For all the sorrow we have about the victims, this is really a fantastic moment. I hope he will slowly recover and pick up his life again, although it will never be normal again."

The Dutch boy had gone with his family to South Africa on holiday, visiting the Kruger National Park game reserve.

On Friday, the boy's aunt and uncle broke the news to him that his parents, Trudy and Patrick van Assouw, and his brother, Enzo, did not survive the crash.

"Under the circumstances, Ruben is doing well. He sleeps a lot. Now and then he is awake and then he is alert," the aunt and uncle said in the statement.

"We told Ruben exactly what happened. He knows his parents and brother are dead. The whole family is going to bear the responsibility for Ruben's future," they said.

The statement continued: "We have two kinds of sorrow to deal with, because Ruben is in a terrible situation, but we have also lost family members.

"The coming time will be a difficult period for us."

Rescuers responding to the crash found Ruben still strapped in his seat and breathing in an area of desert sand strewn with the plane's shredded wreckage. His legs were broken, but he had no serious injuries to his neck, head or face.

The boy had five hours of surgery to repair multiple fractures to his legs and doctors said he has been recovering well.