El Al Flight 1862
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

On 4 October 1992, El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft of the then state-owned Israeli airline
El Al El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (, he, אל על נתיבי אויר לישראל בע״מ), trading as El Al (Hebrew: , "Upwards", "To the Skies" or "Skywards", stylized as ELAL; ar, إل-عال), is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugura ...
, crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg flats in the
Bijlmermeer The Bijlmermeer (), or colloquially Bijlmer (), is one of the neighbourhoods that form the Amsterdam-Zuidoost borough (Dutch: ''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. To many people, the Bijlmer designation is used to refer to Amsterdam Zuidoost ...
(colloquially "Bijlmer") neighbourhood (part of Amsterdam-Zuidoost) of
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, the Netherlands. The crash is known in
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
as the (Bijlmer disaster). In all, 43 people were officially reported as killed, including all of the aircraft's three crew members, a nonrevenue passenger in a
jump seat In aviation, a jump seat or jumpseat is an auxiliary seat for individuals—other than normal passengers—who are not operating the aircraft. In general, the term 'jump seat' can also refer to a seat in any type of vehicle which can fold up out ...
, as well as 39 people on the ground. In addition to these fatalities, 11 people were seriously injured and 15 people received minor injuries. The exact number of people killed on the ground is disputed, as the building housed many undocumented immigrants. The crash is the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in the Netherlands.


Flight

On 4 October 1992, the cargo aircraft, a Boeing 747-258F,
registration Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...
, travelling from
John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...
in New York to
Ben Gurion International Airport Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is th ...
in Israel, made a stopover at
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...
. During the flight from New York to Schiphol, three issues were noted: fluctuations in the
autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...
speed regulation, problems with a radio, and fluctuations in the voltage of the electrical generator on
engine number Engine number may refer to an identification number marked on the engine of a vehicle or, in the case of locomotives, to the road number of the locomotive. The engine number is separate from the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Automobiles E ...
three, the inboard engine on the right wing that would later detach from the aircraft and initiate the accident. The jet landed in Schiphol at 2:40p.m. for cargo loading and crew change. The aircraft was refueled and the observed issues were repaired, at least provisionally. The crew consisted of Captain Yitzhak Fuchs (59), First Officer Arnon Ohad (32), and Flight Engineer Gedalya Sofer (61). A single passenger named Anat Solomon (23) was on board. She was an El Al employee based in Amsterdam, and was travelling to Tel Aviv to marry another El Al employee. Captain Fuchs was an experienced aviator, having flown as a fighter-bomber pilot in the Israeli air force in the late 1950s. He had over 25,000 flight hours, including 9,500 hours on the Boeing 747. First officer Ohad had less experience than the other two crew members, having logged 4,288 flight hours, 612 of them on the Boeing 747. Flight Engineer Sofer was the most experienced crew member on the flight, with more than 26,000 hours of flight experience, of which 15,000 on the Boeing 747. Captain Yitzhak Fuchs had flown for El Al for 28 years and had previously served in the
Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defens ...
for 10 years. First Officer Arnon Ohad had flown for El Al for 10 months, Flight Engineer Gedalya Sofer for 37 years.


Flight

Flight 1862 was scheduled to depart at 5:30p.m., but was delayed until 6:20p.m. It departed from runway 01L (later known as runway 36C) on a northerly heading at 6:22p.m. Once airborne, the aircraft turned to the right. Soon after the turn, at 6:27p.m., above the Gooimeer, a lake near Amsterdam, witnesses on the ground heard a sharp bang and saw falling debris, a trail of smoke, and a momentary flash of fire on the right wing while the aircraft was climbing through . Engine No.3 (right wing, nearest to
fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...
) separated from the right wing of the aircraft, shot forward, damaged the wing slats, then fell back and struck engine No.4 (right wing, farthest from fuselage), tearing it from the wing. The two engines fell away from the aircraft, also ripping out a 10-m (33-ft) stretch of the wing's leading edge. The loud noise attracted the attention of some pleasure boaters on the Gooimeer. The boaters notified the
Netherlands Coastguard The Netherlands Coastguard ( nl, Kustwacht Nederland) is maritime law enforcement branch of the Royal Netherlands Navy patrolling the Dutch coastline. Its operational command falls under the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Netherlands Navy ...
of two objects they had seen falling from the sky. One boater, a police officer, said he initially thought the two falling objects were parachutists, but as they fell closer he could see that they were plane engines."Amsterdam Air Crash" Seconds From Disaster Season 2, Episode 15 The first officer made a Mayday call to
air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...
(ATC) and indicated that they wanted to return to Schiphol. At 6:28:45p.m., the first officer reported: "El Al 1862, lost number three and number four engine, number three and number four engine." ATC and the flight crew did not yet grasp the severity of the situation. Although the flight crew knew they had lost power from the engines, they did not see that the engines themselves had completely broken off and that the wing had been damaged. The outboard engine on the wing of a 747 is visible from the cockpit only with difficulty and the inboard engine on the wing is not visible at all. Given the choices that the captain and crew made following the loss of engine power, the Dutch parliamentary inquiry commission that later studied the crash concluded that the crew did not know that both engines had broken away from the right wing. On the night of the crash, the landing runway in use at Schiphol was runway 06. The crew requested runway 27 – Schiphol's longest – for an emergency landing, even though it meant landing with a 21-knot quartering tailwind. The aircraft was still too high and close to land when it circled back to the airport. It was forced to continue circling Amsterdam until it could reduce altitude to that required for a final approach to landing. During the second circle, the wing flaps were extended. The inboard trailing edge flaps extended, since they were powered by the number one hydraulic system, which was still functioning, but the outboard trailing edge flaps did not, because they were powered by the number four hydraulic system, which had failed when the number four engine broke away. The partial flap condition meant that the aircraft would have a higher pitch attitude than normal as it slowed down. The leading edge slats extended on the left wing, but not on the right wing, because of the extensive damage sustained when the engines separated, which had also severely disrupted the air flow over the right wing. That differential configuration caused the left wing to generate significantly more
lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...
than the right, especially when the pitch attitude increased as the airspeed decreased. The increased lift on the left side increased the tendency to roll further to the right, both because the right outboard aileron was inoperative and because the thrust of the left engines was increased in an attempt to reduce the aircraft's very high sink rate. As the aircraft slowed, the ability of the remaining controls to counteract the right roll diminished. The crew finally lost almost all ability to prevent the aircraft from rolling to the right. The roll reached 90° just before the impact with the apartments. At 6:35:25p.m., the first officer radioed to ATC: "Going down, 1862, going down, going down, copied, going down." In the background, the captain was heard instructing the first officer in Hebrew to raise the flaps and lower the landing gear.


Crash

At 6:35:42p.m. local time, the aircraft nose-dived from the sky and crashed into two high-rise apartment complexes in the
Bijlmermeer The Bijlmermeer (), or colloquially Bijlmer (), is one of the neighbourhoods that form the Amsterdam-Zuidoost borough (Dutch: ''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. To many people, the Bijlmer designation is used to refer to Amsterdam Zuidoost ...
neighbourhood of Amsterdam, at the corner of a building where the Groeneveen complex met the Klein-Kruitberg complex. It exploded in a fireball, which caused the building to partially collapse inward, destroying dozens of apartments. The cockpit came to rest east of the building, between the building and the viaduct of Amsterdam Metro Line 53; the tail broke off and was blown back by the force of the explosion. During the last moments of the flight, the ATCs made several desperate attempts to contact the aircraft. The Schiphol arrival controllers work from a closed building at Schiphol-East, not from the control tower. At 6:35:45p.m., the control tower reported to the arrival controllers: ''"Het is gebeurd"'' (literally "It has happened", but colloquially "It is over"). At that moment a large smoke plume emanating from the crash scene was visible from the control tower. The aircraft had disappeared from arrival control radar. The arrival controllers reported that the aircraft had last been located west of
Weesp Weesp () is a city, an urban area in the municipality of Amsterdam and a former municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of in . It lies on the river Vecht and next to the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal in an are ...
, and emergency personnel were sent immediately. At the time of the crash, two police officers were in Bijlmermeer checking on a burglary report. They saw the aircraft plummet and immediately sounded an alarm. The first fire trucks and rescue services arrived within a few minutes of the crash. Nearby hospitals were advised to prepare for hundreds of casualties. The complex was partly inhabited by immigrants from Suriname and Aruba, both former Dutch colonies, and the death toll was difficult to estimate in the hours after the crash.


Aftermath

The crash was also witnessed by a nearby fire station on Flierbosdreef. First responders came upon a rapidly spreading fire of "gigantic proportions" that consumed all 10 floors of the buildings and was wide. No one survived from the crash point, but some managed to escape from the remainder of the building. Witnesses reported seeing people jumping out of the building to escape the fire. Hundreds of people were left homeless by the crash; the city's municipal buses were used to transport survivors to emergency shelters. Firefighters and police were also forced to deal with reports of looting in the area. Prime Minister
Ruud Lubbers Rudolphus Franciscus Marie "Ruud" Lubbers (; 7 May 1939 – 14 February 2018) was a Dutch politician, diplomat and businessman who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1982 to 1994, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Re ...
and
Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husban ...
visited the scene of the disaster the following afternoon. The prime minister said, "This is a disaster that has shaken the whole country." In the days immediately following the disaster, bodies of victims were recovered from the crash site. The mayor ordered rubble and aircraft wreckage removed, and investigators found the critical engine pylon fuse pins in the landfill. The two fallen engines were recovered from the Gooimeer, as were pieces of a section of the right wing's leading edge. The remains of the aircraft were transported to Schiphol for analysis. The aircraft's
flight data recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...
was recovered from the crash site and was heavily damaged, with the tape broken in four places. The section containing the data from the last two and a half minutes of the flight was particularly damaged. The recorder was sent to the United States for recovery and the data was successfully extracted. Despite intensive search activities to recover the
cockpit voice recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...
from the wreckage area, it was never found, though El Al employees stated that it had been installed in the aircraft.


Causes

In the event of excessive loads on the Boeing 747 engines or engine
pylons Pylon may refer to: Structures and boundaries * Pylon (architecture), the gateway to the inner part of an Ancient Egyptian temple or Christian cathedral * Pylon, a support tower structure for suspension bridges or highways * Pylon, an orange mar ...
, the fuse pins holding the engine nacelle to the wing are designed to fracture cleanly, allowing the engine to separate from the aircraft without damaging the wing or wing fuel tank. Airliners are generally designed to remain airworthy in the event of an engine failure or separation, so they can be landed safely. Damage to a wing or wing fuel tank can have disastrous consequences. The
Netherlands Aviation Safety Board The Netherlands Aviation Safety Board ( nl, Raad voor de Luchtvaart) was an agency of the Government of the Netherlands. It investigated aviation accidents and incidents. Its head office was located in Hoofddorp in the Haarlemmermeer municipality. ...
found that the fuse pins had not failed properly, but instead had fatigue cracks prior to overload failure. The board pieced together a probable sequence of events for the loss of engine three:
#Gradual failure by fatigue and then overload failure of the inboard midspar fuse pin at the inboard thin-walled location #Overload failure of the outer lug of the inboard midspar pylon fitting #Overload failure of the outboard midspar fuse pin at the outboard thin-walled and fatigue-cracked location #Overload failure of the outboard midspar fuse pin at the inboard thin-walled location
This sequence of consecutive failures caused the inboard engine and pylon to break free. Its trajectory after breaking off the wing caused it to slam into the outboard engine and rip it and its pylon off the wing. Serious damage was also caused to the leading edge of the right wing. Both loss of hydraulic power and damage to the right wing prevented correct operation of the flaps that the crew later tried to extend in flight. Research indicated that the crew were able to keep the aircraft in the air at first due to its high air speed (280 knots), though the damage to the right wing, resulting in reduced lift, had made keeping level more difficult. At , nevertheless, lift on the right wing was sufficient to keep the aircraft aloft. Once it had to reduce speed for landing, the amount of lift on the right wing was insufficient to enable stable flight, so a safe landing would have been very difficult to achieve. The aircraft then banked sharply to the right with very little chance of recovery. The official probable causes were determined to be:


Victims

Forty-three people were killed in the disaster: all four occupants of the aircraft (three crew members and one nonrevenue passenger) and 39 people on the ground. This was considerably lower than expected; the police had originally estimated a death toll over 200 and Amsterdam Mayor
Ed van Thijn Eduard van Thijn (; 16 August 1934 – 19 December 2021) was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and historian. He was a member of the Municipal Council of Amsterdam (1962–1971), member of the House of Representatives (1967–1981; ...
had said that 240 people were missing. Twenty-six people sustained nonfatal injuries; 11 of these were injured seriously enough to require hospital treatment. A belief has persisted that the actual number of victims killed in the crash was considerably higher. Bijlmermeer has a high number of residents living there illegally, particularly from
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
and Suriname, and members of the Ghanaian community stated that they lost a considerable number of undocumented occupants who were not counted among the dead.


Memorial

A memorial, designed by architects
Herman Hertzberger Herman Hertzberger (born 6 July 1932) is a Dutch architect, and a professor emeritus of the Delft University of Technology. In 2012 he received the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Biography Herman Hertzberger was ...
and Georges Descombes, was built near the crash site with the names of the victims. Flowers are laid at a tree that survived the disaster, referred to as " the tree that saw it all" (''de boom die alles zag''). A public memorial is held annually to mark the disaster; no planes fly over the area for one hour out of respect for the victims.


Health issues

Mental-health care was available after the crash to all affected residents and service personnel. After about a year, many residents and service personnel began approaching doctors with physical health complaints, which the affected patients blamed on the El Al crash. Insomnia, chronic respiratory infections, general pain and discomfort, impotence, flatulence, and bowel complaints were all reported. About 67% of the affected patients were found to be infected with '' Mycoplasma'', and suffered from symptoms similar to the
Gulf War syndrome Gulf War syndrome or Gulf War illness is a chronic and multi-symptomatic disorder affecting military veterans of both sides of the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. A wide range of acute and chronic symptoms have been linked to it, including fatigue ...
or chronic fatigue syndrome-like symptoms. Dutch officials from government departments of transport and of public health asserted that at the time of the crash, they understood that no health risks existed from any cargo on the aircraft;
Els Borst Else "Els" Borst-Eilers (; 22 March 1932 – 8 February 2014) was a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and physician. She was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 21 December 2012. Borst worked as a medical researcher ...
, minister of public health, stated that "no extremely toxic, very dangerous, or
radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consi ...
materials" had been on board. In October 1993, the nuclear energy research foundation Laka reported that the tail contained of depleted uranium as counterweight, as did all Boeing 747s at the time; this was not known during the rescue and recovery process. Studies were suggested to be undertaken on the symptoms of the affected survivors and service personnel, but for several years, these suggestions were ignored on the basis that no practical reason would lead one to believe in any link between the health complaints of the survivors and the Bijlmer crash site. In 1997, an expert testified in the Israeli
parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
that dangerous products would have been released during combustion of the depleted uranium in the tail of the Boeing 747. - an eventuality given consideration, but ruled out as improbable, in the Netherlands Air Safety Board's 1994 final report of the accident. The first studies on the symptoms reported by survivors, performed by the Academisch Medisch Centrum (AMC), began in May 1998. The AMC eventually concluded that up to a dozen cases of
autoimmune disorder An autoimmune disease is a condition arising from an abnormal immune response to a functioning body part. At least 80 types of autoimmune diseases have been identified, with some evidence suggesting that there may be more than 100 types. Nearly ...
s among the survivors could be directly attributed to the crash, and health notices were distributed to doctors throughout the Netherlands requesting that extra attention be paid to symptoms of autoimmune disorder, particularly if the patient had a link with the Bijlmer crash site. Another study, performed by the
Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment ( nl, Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu or simply RIVM) is a Dutch research institute that is an independent agency of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. RIVM perfo ...
, concluded that although toxic products had been released at the time of the crash, the added risks of cancer were small, about one or two additional cases per 10,000 exposed persons. The institute also concluded that the chances of uranium poisoning were minimal.


Cargo

Soon after the disaster, it was announced that the aircraft had contained fruit, perfumes, and computer components. Dutch Minister Hanja Maij-Weggen asserted that she was certain that it contained no military cargo. The survivors' health complaints following the crash increased the number of questions about the cargo. In 1998, El Al spokesman Nachman Klieman publicly revealed that 190L of
dimethyl methylphosphonate Ethane ( , ) is an organic chemical compound with chemical formula . At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is isolated on an industrial scale from natural gas and as a petroc ...
, a CWC schedule 2 chemical, had been included in the cargo. The chemical's primary commercial use is as a flame retardant. Other commercial uses are a preignition additive for gasoline, anti-foaming agent, plasticizer, stabilizer, textile conditioner, antistatic agent, an additive for solvents & low-temperature hydraulic fluids, and as a catalyst/ reagent in organic synthesis of Sarin &
Soman Soman (or GD, EA 1210, Zoman, PFMP, A-255, systematic name: ''O''-pinacolyl methylphosphonofluoridate) is an extremely toxic chemical substance. It is a nerve agent, interfering with normal functioning of the mammalian nervous system by inhibiti ...
nerve gases. The State of Israel noted that the chemical had been listed on the cargo manifest in accordance with international regulations, the material was nontoxic, and its intended use was to test the filters of Chemical Weapons detectors. The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed that it had already known about the presence of chemicals on the aircraft. The shipment was from a US chemical plant to the
Israel Institute for Biological Research Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) is an Israeli research and development laboratory It is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Office that works in close cooperation with Israeli government agencies. IIBR has many public p ...
under a
US Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for b ...
license. According to the chemical weapons site CWInfo, the quantity involved was "too small for the preparation of a militarily useful quantity of Sarin, but would be consistent with making small quantities for testing detection methods and protective clothing."


Related accidents and aftermath

This was one of several accidents caused by problems with Boeing 707 and 747 engine pylons, which were nearly identical in design. In April 1968, an engine and pylon had fallen off a Boeing 707, being operated as
BOAC Flight 712 BOAC Flight 712 ( callsign ''Speedbird 712'') was a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service operated by a Boeing 707-465 from London Heathrow Airport bound for Sydney via Zurich and Singapore. On Monday 8 April 1968, it suffered a ...
, resulting in five deaths. On 16 January 1987, a Transbrasil Boeing 707 (PT-TCP) lost its No. 2 engine with 150 people on board. It landed without incident and was later ferried on three engines for repair. In December 1991, China Airlines Flight 358 had crashed when its No. 3 and No. 4 engines fell off shortly after takeoff from Taipei, resulting in the death of all five occupants. In January 1992, a Tampa Colombia 707 cargo flight was forced to return to Miami, when the No. 3 engine separated shortly after takeoff. In March 1992, a similar scenario – separation of the No. 3 and No. 4 engines – this time on a Boeing 707, occurred on a Trans-Air cargo flight ( Transair 671). Again, No. 3 engine detached and collided with No. 4 engine, tearing it off, as well. On this occasion, the crew was able to land safely at
Istres Air Base Istres (; Occitan: Istre) is a commune in southern France, some 60 km (38 mi) northwest of Marseille. It is in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture. Location Is ...
in the south of France. In March 1993, a
Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...
747 cargo flight operated by
Evergreen International Airlines Evergreen International Airlines was a charter and cargo airline based in McMinnville, Oregon, United States. Wholly owned by Evergreen International Aviation, it had longstanding ties to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It operated co ...
similarly returned to Anchorage after the No. 2 engine detached. After this accident, Boeing issued a service directive to all owners of the 747 regarding its fuse pins. Engines and pylons had to be removed from 747s and the fuse pins examined for defects. If cracks were present, the pins were to be replaced.


Depictions

The crash was depicted in the National Geographic documentary series '' Seconds from Disaster'' (in the 2006 episode "Amsterdam Air Crash") and '' Mayday'', known as ''Air Crash Investigation'' outside North America (in the 2016 episode "High Rise Catastrophe"). The crash and its aftermath were the basis for a five-part Dutch TV docudrama series titled ''Rampvlucht'' (‘Disaster Flight’) ( nl), which premiered on Dutch public broadcaster NPO on October 4, 2022, the thirty-year anniversary of the crash. It follows a Bijlmermeer-based veterinarian and two journalists who find themselves drawn into a years-long investigation into the many puzzling questions surrounding the official narrative about the crash. The series was awarded the 2022 Golden Calf (Dutch Oscar) for Best TV Series.A Brilliant New Dutch Thriller Shames El Al for Its Darkest Hour
Adrian Hennigan, Oct 19, 2022, Haaretz


See also

*
Aviation safety Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of airc ...
* China Airlines Flight 358 - 1991 air disaster also involving loss of control due to an in-flight separation of two engines in near identical circumstances *
Trans-Air Service Flight 671 Trans-Air Service Flight 671 was a cargo flight from Luxembourg Airport to Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria. While flying over France on March 31, 1992, the Boeing 707 operating the flight experienced an in-flight separat ...
- 1992 air incident also involving an in-flight separation of two engines * 1991 Gulf War KC-135 incident - 6 February 1991 air incident also involving an in-flight separation of two engines * American Airlines Flight 191 - 1979 air disaster also involving loss of control due to engine detachment * Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 46E - 1993 air incident involving another 747 freighter with an engine detachment *
List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft This list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft includes notable events that have a corresponding Wikipedia article. Entries in this list involve passenger or cargo aircraft that are operating commercially and meet this list ...
*
Surinam Airways Flight 764 Surinam Airways Flight 764 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname on a Surinam Airways DC-8-62. On Wednesday 7 June 1989, the fl ...
- 1989 aircraft crash involving several passengers from Bijlmer * 2020 Juba AN-26 crash


Notes


References


Further reading

* Theo Bean, ''Een gat in mijn hart: een boek gebaseerd op tekeningen en teksten van kinderen na de vliegramp in de Bijlmermeer van 4 oktober 1992''. Zwolle: Waanders, 1993. * Vincent Dekker, ''Going down, going down: De ware toedracht van de Bijlmerramp.'' Amsterdam: Pandora, 1999. * ''Een beladen vlucht: eindrapport Bijlmer enquête.'' Sdu Uitgevers, 1999. * Pierre Heijboer, ''Doemvlucht: de verzwegen geheimen van de Bijlmerramp.'' Utrecht: Het Spectrum, 2002. * R. J. H. Wanhill and A. Oldersma,
Fatigue and Fracture in an Aircraft Engine Pylon
', Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium (NLR TP 96719).
Archive
* This event is featured on the National Geographic Channel show '' Seconds From Disaster''. * The crash was featured on the 15th season of the National Geographic Channel and
Discovery Channel Canada Discovery Channel (often referred to as simply Discovery) is a Canadian specialty television channel owned by CTV Speciality Television Inc. (a joint venture between Bell Media/ESPN Inc. (80%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns the remainin ...
show Mayday or ''Air Crash Investigation''. The episode is called High Rise Catastrophe. The computer graphics in the documentary wrongly painted the aircraft in El Al's passenger aircraft livery, while in reality, the crashed aircraft lacks the painting of Israel flag and airline identity, and only the word "Cargo" appear on both sides of the aircraft.


External links


Aircraft accident reportArchive
Netherlands Aviation Safety Board The Netherlands Aviation Safety Board ( nl, Raad voor de Luchtvaart) was an agency of the Government of the Netherlands. It investigated aviation accidents and incidents. Its head office was located in Hoofddorp in the Haarlemmermeer municipality. ...
. Originally issued in English, with a Dutch translation to be issued at a later time.
Corrosion Doctors' entry on El Al Flight 1862
*
Google Maps view of sitePre-disaster photos from Airliners.net
Planecrashinfo.com (4 October 1992). Retrieved on 9 September 2011. {{Aviation incidents and accidents in 1992 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure Aviation accidents and incidents in 1992 Accidents and incidents involving cargo aircraft 1990s in Amsterdam 1992 in the Netherlands Aviation accidents and incidents in the Netherlands Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 747 El Al accidents and incidents Israel–Netherlands relations Amsterdam-Zuidoost October 1992 events in Europe Airliner accidents and incidents involving in-flight engine separations High-rise fires