JERUSALEM — El Al officials breathed a collective sigh of relief last week with the publication of the Dutch parliamentary inquiry into the crash of an El Al Boeing 747 cargo jet in Amsterdam in 1992.
The commission in its 350-page report, which was released on Thursday of last week, sharply criticized the Dutch government but attached no blame to Israel’s national airline.
The commission was established after residents of the apartment building in the Amsterdam suburb of Bijlmer, which the cargo plane hit as it crashed, complained of a flurry of mysterious ailments, giving rise to theories that the cargo had included some deadly substance intended for Israel’s defense industries.
Three crew members and the wife of one of them were killed in the crash and at least 39 local residents were reported to have died, although because the high-rise was largely inhabited by illegal immigrants, the total number of victims may never be known.
El Al Chairman Yosef Ciechanover said he hopes that now the airline would be able to go back to work as usual. Director-General Yoel Feldschuh noted that, in spite of the press reports and rumors about El Al, the commission cast no blame on the airline.
“The commission of inquiry established what [we] had claimed all along: that the aircraft was sound from a maintenance point of view when it took off and that the cargo in the plane did not include dangerous substances which it is forbidden to fly,” Feldschuh said.
However, the commission did indirectly criticize El Al and the Israeli authorities by saying that “given the public disquiet in the Netherlands…and the friendly relations between the Netherlands and Israel, the commission finds it incomprehensible that more cooperation was not provided sooner in bringing the documents to light.” It added that this was true despite El Al’s cooperation in the final weeks of the inquiry.
Ciechanover said in reply that the only documents missing were those relating to 20 tons of cargo, which had been in the hands of the forwarder.
Only after El Al and the Dutch and American governments all exerted pressure, had the forwarders found the documents, he said.
Ciechanover added that the commission report had disproved rumors, such as that there had been mysterious “men in white,” ostensibly El Al or Israeli security personnel, who had appeared at the site shortly after the crash, or that El Al enjoyed a special position at Schiphol Airport.
At the same time, Ciechanover pointed out that El Al was an important customer for the airport’s cargo section, with a total of 100,000 tons of freight in 1998, 50 percent of the airport’s total cargo.
Feldschuh distanced himself and the company from the political furor following publication of the report, which accused the Dutch government of misleading lawmakers and failing victims by reacting sluggishly to their health problems.
“We hope that we will now be allowed to do our work away from the internal Dutch political storm,” Feldschuh said.
Among those most harshly criticized in the report were Dutch Health Minister Els Borst and former Transport Minister Annemarie Jorritsma, both vice premiers. Although both had earlier threatened to resign, last week they decided to remain in their positions.
In its 400-page report the commission said parliament was too often given “unclear, incomplete, tardy, or inaccurate information” by cabinet ministers. The inquiry charged that Dutch government officials “failed to pass on crucial information to those with administrative responsibility.”
It also charged that the government delayed for years ordering medical examinations of people living near the crash site and suffering health problems, despite the fact that hundreds of local residents complained of chronic illness they blamed on the cargo.
The commission, however, brushed aside claims of a cover-up by saying it found no evidence of fraud aimed at concealing the flight’s cargo, which included a chemical that can be used to make the deadly nerve gas Sarin. The commission added that it believes the flight’s entire load has now been accounted for.
Parliament will debate the report’s findings next month and could order a confidence vote in the entire government or in individual ministers.