Today precisely 20 years ago we still remember that a Boeing 747 drilled into two flats in the Amsterdam Bijlmer. The plain crash went down in history as the Bijlmer disaster and is still commemorated each year.
Most of you may remember what happened in the Bijlmer on the fourth of October 1992. It looked like a trial run for what happened in New York on what everybody refers to today as 9/11. On october the fourth 1992 a freight plane from the israeli airline El Al, a Boeing 747 penetrated a high rise apartment building.
Forty people died, including the crew and an employee of the airline that was flying home to be married. It was concluded that the heat of the crash must have been so intense that even peoples bones totally incinerated.
The forty people who died were the forty who were registered, many survivors say that the actual casualty number is much higher. The Ghanese community declared they lost quite a few more members who were living there unregistered, some whom may have been illegal immigrants. Survivors of the crash living in the building say the total number of casualties stands at about 240.
Our thoughts today are with all the victims, relatives and friends.
