The Dutch boy who was the sole survivor of the Libyan plane crash may be flown home as early as this weekend, doctors said today.
Rescuers found nine-year-old Ruben Van Assouw still strapped in his seat and breathing in an area of desert sand strewn with the plane's debris.
His father, mother and 11-year-old brother were among the 103 people killed on Wednesday when their flight from South Africa crashed short of the runway in Tripoli.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry said doctors think the boy could return home this weekend.
"I think he's fine under the current conditions. We hope that we will be able to make preparations for his return, hopefully this weekend, but it's all subject ... to medical examinations and agreement of the doctors that he's fit for travel, " a spokesman said.
The boy was recovering well after surgery to repair multiple fractures to his legs. His aunt and uncle flew to Libya from the Netherlands and were visiting him in hospital.
The boy, contacted by phone by a Dutch newspaper, said he could not remember the crash.
"I don't know how I got here, I don't know anything else," he told a reporter from De Telegraaf. "I just want to get going. I want to get washed, dressed and then go."
The newspaper said a doctor handed his mobile phone to the boy to let him talk to its reporter. The interview angered Dutch officials since the foreign minister had asked the press to respect the boy's privacy and not contact relatives of the victims.
Most of those on board the Afriqiyah Airways flight from Johannesburg were Dutch tourists.
The Airbus 330-200 may have been attempting a missed approach in poor visibility caused by sunlit haze, safety officials and pilots familiar with the airport said.
Both black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, were immediately recovered at the crash site in the capital. Investigators from the United States, France, South Africa, and the Netherlands are helping Libya with the probe.
Dutch forensics teams will start work with Libyan officials to identify the bodies - a task that could take a week at least, depending on the condition of the bodies.