Ruben van Assouw was the sole survivor, pulled unconscious from the wreckage of an Afriqiyah Airways jetliner that plunged into the desert less than a kilometer from the runway in Tripoli four days ago, killing 103 people.
Investigators from the US and other countries were on the scene of the crash near the Libyan capital Saturday trying to determine a cause. Others began identifying the dead, who include 70 Dutch nationals.
Ruben returned with an aunt and uncle aboard a flight to a military air base in Eindhoven, then was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital in nearby Tilburg, the hometown of the Van Assouws. Patrick, 40, Trudy, 41, and their son Enzo died in the crash.
Ruben underwent more than four hours of surgery to repair multiple fractures to his legs Wednesday, but doctors say he has been recovering well.
A statement by close relatives said the extended family will care for Ruben, and asked the media not to contact them while they are grieving. Ruben was shielded from the media at the air base and hospital.
It was not yet clear where he will live, though much of the family, including grandparents, lives in Tilburg.
"Let's make sure he can catch his breath peacefully in the arms of relatives," Tilburg mayor Ivo Opstelten said on Dutch television. The boy and his relatives need to find "a kind of balance with each other, so they can start sketching a future."
The story of the boy's improbable survival and tragic loss has moved people around the world. Hundreds offered condolences and wished the boy well on a blog set up by his father to chronicle the family's vacation to South Africa. They were returning home when their flight from Johannesburg to Tripoli crashed.
At the Yore elementary school in Tilburg where Enzo was in 6th grade and Ruben is in 3rd, many students returned early from spring break to sign a condolence register for Enzo - and prepare for Ruben's eventual return.
"When he comes back - we don't know exactly how things are going to go - but when he comes back to school, we're going to take awfully good care of him," school director Elly Sebregts said.
"That's the school's job, I think. What we can do for him, in the school sphere, we will do."
Investigators on a joint panel, which includes Americans, Dutch, French, South Africans and Libyans, met Saturday to plot their strategy to determine a cause of the crash. No findings were immediately released.
