AMSTERDAM — 1992 · Major Tragedy

Bijlmer Air Disaster

ClosedSources: ALast updated: 14 October 2026

At 18:35 on the evening of 4 October 1992, both engines on the right wing of El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 freighter that had taken off from Schiphol, separated in flight. Trying to return to the airport, the aircraft crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg apartment blocks in Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer district. Officially 47 people died, four on board and 43 on the ground; many of the victims were residents of migrant background. Years later it emerged that the plane had been carrying a chemical usable in making nerve agent and depleted uranium as counterweight. Residents and rescue workers reported unexplained health complaints. A parliamentary inquiry found the design and certification of the engine pylons inadequate.

Date: 1992
Place: Bijlmermeer, Netherlands, Amsterdam, NL
Category: Major Tragedy
Case Status: Closed
Coordinates: 52.3177, 4.9759 ↗

Timeline of Events

4 October 1992, 18:35The El Al cargo plane crashed into flats in Bijlmermeer.
1992The official death toll was set at 47.

1998It became public that the cargo included a nerve agent precursor.
1998–1999A parliamentary inquiry exposed design and inspection failings.

Sources

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