Now the Dutch parliament is taking up their charges that the jet carried a secret Israeli military shipment of weapons-grade plutonium and the chemical ingredients for sarin. As many as 2,000 local residents and firemen reported health complaints they believe were caused by the crash. Meanwhile, the El Al cargo jet flights continue to stop over at Schiphol, raising fears that the commercial airport is a hub for secret weapons transfers. PNS associate editor Yoichi Clark Shimatsu is an investigative reporter and former editor of the English-language Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo. The El Al Boeing 747 crashed into an apartment building in Bijlmeer, a suburb of Amsterdam, killing 39 people on the ground and four aboard the plane.
Dutch journalists allege it was carrying weapons-grade plutonium as well.
As many as 2,000 local residents and firemen have reported health complaints that they attribute to the crash. Many report loss of hair in the weeks after the crash, a sign of radiation disease. The hearings at The Hague follow six years of investigation by Dutch journalists Vincent Dekker and Pierre Heyboer with the Volkskrant newspaper. The flight stopped at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport for refueling en route from New York to Tel Aviv. The Israeli government has claimed that the chemicals were intended for testing gas masks.