From: knop@dutecad.et.tudelft.nl (Peter Knoppers)
Subject: El Al Boeing crash on Amsterdam
Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1992 21:58:54 GMT

Well, there seems to be interest in more information about the
El Al Boeing 747 200-F crash on Amsterdam last Sunday evening.
The following information was gathered from my newspaper (NRC
Handelsblad), local television and other sources.

Sequence of events:
18:21 (local time, GMT + 1) Flight LY1862 departs from Schiphol
airport using the "Zwanenburgbaan" (straight North). The plane
carries 84000 liters of fuel and 114 tons of freight (pardon my
use of SI units), three crew members and one passenger.

Remarkably slowly the aircraft climbs to 5000 feet and makes a
right turn (as scheduled) and is now flying Eastward in the
direction of radio beacon "Pampus".

18:26 The crew reports a fire in engine 3 and asks permission
to return to Schiphol. The controllers at Schiphol immediately
prepare runway 06 (the "Kaagbaan"). With the rather strong wind
from the East this should be the easiest runway to land on.
The crew refuses runway 06 and instead requests runway 27, the
"Buitenveldertbaan". (It is assumed that the crew wanted to land
without the slightest detour. A successfull landing on runway 27
would have been under a strong tailwind.)
Captain Fuchs now reports another fire in engine 4 (also on the
right wing).

During all this aircraft makes one complete, wide, 360 degrees
turn to lose some height and dump some fuel over the IJsselmeer.

While over the "Naardermeer" the plane looses both right-wing
engines.

The plane takes a sharp right turn and the runway can now be
seen in the distance.
Just over the radio beacon "Whiskey Papa" (right before the
Bijlmer suburbs) captain Fuchs reports problems with the flaps.
The aircraft looses height rapidly and is near the Final Approach
Fix beacon. Height is now 600 meters (2000 foot). 

18:34 The aircraft becomes uncontrollable, the last words of
the captain are "Going down". Then he crashes into the high-rise
appartment building "Groeneveen/Kruitberg" instantly destroying
80 appartments; the homes of 239 people.

18:51 The disaster plan is activated by mayor of Amsterdam Mr
Ed van Thijn.

18:55 The disaster plan of the nearby AMC hospital is activated.
Some 161 beds are made available. In the next half hour a few
dozen wounded people are brought in with taxis and ambulances.

19:55 Several hundred ambulances are at the scene of the crash.
The fire brigade has difficulty reaching the scene. Some with
severe burns are treated on site with cold water. The Police
fears that the building may collapse, pieces of concrete are
coming down. Only one person has been recovered (alive ?) from
under the debris.

20:35 It appears that some 20 to 30 people have jumped down from
their burning appartments, many are dead, the others badly wounded.

20:52 The buildings are still burning. The police announces that
that probably 150 to 200 people were killed.
The bodies of the three crew members and the one passenger have
been found. Also the bodies of eight residents have been found.
Helicopters are being used to transport some of those with burns
to a specialized hospital in Beverwijk.

21:34 The emergency services and the phone company urge people
not to make calls to or from Amsterdam in order to avoid an
imminent overload (and crash) of the telephone network. Citizens
that want to have a personal look at the disaster area are
obstructing the emergency services.
 
22:00 The fire department announces that the fire is under con-
trol. (It is still going strong but under control.)

23:23 The fire department announces that they expect to find
no more survivors. Those who have survived and not wounded are
collected in a sporting center nearby.

23:54 The two dropped engines have been found.

Monday 00:43 The search for living or dead bodies is stopped,
because the building may collapse and has to be supported first.
The fires are mostly out. A few small fires cannot be killed,
because these are gas fires and the emergency valves in the
building can not be reached. Instead the roads will have to
be opened to dig up the pipes and stop the gas supply to the
building.

13:15 There are now 19 people being treated in the hospitals.

----

Other remarks:
It is now expected that the search in the debris will take a few
more days. The search continues day and night. It will be very
difficult to identify most bodies. It is expected that quite a
few illegal aliens have been killed of whom there are probably
no dental records at all.

It is now expected that over 200 were killed.

This was the greatest disaster that the Netherlands has seen
since the flooding of 1953. It also appears to be record setting
with respect to number of casualties caused on the ground in
the crash of an airplane anywhere. Also the ratio of dead people
versus wounded people is particularly high.

Some doubts have arisen with respect to the mounting of the
engines on the plane. The engines were of type JT90 built by
Pratt & Whitney. Only days before the crash Boeing has issued
an order to inspect these mountings.

The aircraft was built in 1979 and has experienced some engine
related problems before. A few months ago a very similar
airplane with the same type of engines crashed, also after
losing both right-wing engines. The loss of two engines on
one side of the plane is apparently not trained in simulators.
Either it is considered too unlikely to happen, or it is
expected to be impossible to control the airplane under those
conditions.

Sabotage is not considered a likely cause of the crash.

The aircraft was loaded with much more fuel than needed for the
intended flight to Tel Aviv. This may have to do with low fuel
prices at Schiphol.

An approach to the "Kaagbaan" would have kept the plane clear
of the most densely populated areas.
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  Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, knop@duteca.et.tudelft.nl