THE HAGUE - Some eight thousand Dutch people were stuck in Turkey Thursday after authorities in The Hague grounded a Turkish air company because of fears about the airworthiness of its planes.
Esat Aksak, a spokesman for the Turkish airline in question Onur Air, said it would do everything possible to repatriate its passengers.
"We do everything we can to keep our planes in good working order," he insisted, describing the Dutch decision as injust.
Onur Air makes 300 weeekly flights from Turkey to Belgium, Austria, Germany and Spain and some 75 to the Netherlands.
Another airline, Martinair, said Thursday it would shuttle between 1,500 and 2,000 of the Onur Air passagers back to the Netherlands this weekend.
05/12/2005 18:12 GMT