The deadliest aviation disaster in the Netherlands, notable for later revelations that the cargo included chemical precursors linked to nerve agent production.
Key Facts
- Date
- 4 October 1992
- Total killed
- 47 (4 crew, 43 on ground)
- Seriously injured
- 11
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747 cargo
- DMMP cargo volume
- 190 liters of dimethyl methylphosphonate
- Impact site
- Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg flats, Bijlmermeer
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft, departed on a flight carrying freight that included 190 liters of DMMP — a chemical precursor linked to nerve agents sarin and soman — shipped from a U.S. chemical plant to the Israel Institute for Biological Research under a U.S. Department of Commerce license. The aircraft experienced a mechanical failure shortly after takeoff from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
On 4 October 1992, the aircraft crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg residential tower blocks in the Bijlmermeer neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Forty-seven people died, including all four persons on board and at least 43 on the ground, with the precise ground toll uncertain due to unregistered residents in the building.
The crash, known in Dutch as the Bijlmerramp, became the deadliest aviation disaster in Netherlands history. Survivors later reported unexplained health effects, and a 1998 disclosure by El Al confirmed the presence of chemical precursors for nerve agents on board, triggering public controversy over transparency and the regulation of hazardous cargo shipments.