1992 El Al air crash discussion (archive)

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 10:18:40 -0500

From: Jeff Ewing

Interesting report on NPR this morning about the El Al cargo jet crash in Holland in '92. It seems that the surviving residents (many of them immigrants) of the crash have been having mysterious ailments ever since. The residents accuse the government of secretiveness, the government accuses El Al. Theories range from the depleted uranium apparently used for wing ballast in the plane (I had never heard of this!) to suggestions that the plane was carrying Sarin components. Report by the Dutch government due out tomorrow.

It is unseemly to make light of this, but if you really \*had\* to take out a terrorist/cultist cell in a friendly country, a rigged "accident" involving a cargo aircraft would be costly, but deniable.

I was thinking along these lines already because of USFORREC1's End Times scenario. Suicidal Karotechia bauers TOW-ing LNG ships is nicely over-the-top, but wouldn't a kamikaze or radio-controlled light plane attack be more feasible? No import problems, I believe wire-guideds have some problems operating over water, potential survivability. Not to nit-pick an awesome campaign set-up!

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 07:55:12 -0800

From: Josh Shaw

Did this to a clutch of Giovanni (sp?) in a VTM game.

Was in a residential neighborhood so \*lots\* of "collateral damage" but……….

"IT SOLVED THE FEWKIN PROBLEM, DIDNTIT!"

Of course Alphonse would never authorize anything so extreme, would he?

And exactly how, minus mind control, does one convince the pilot (who must have a wife and family somewhere and is probably a good hypnotic subject and of course there are all these drugs which conveniently never show up on the autopsy) to go for it.

OTOH, a plane crash is a good way to explain a big explosion, whether a plane crashed or not.

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 11:48:09 -0500

> *Interesting report on NPR this morning about the El Al cargo jet crashin Holland in '92. It seems that the surviving residents (many of them immigrants) of the crash have been having mysterious ailments ever since. The residents accuse the government of secretiveness, the government accuses El Al. Theories range from the depleted uranium apparently used for wing ballast in the plane (I had never heard of this!) to suggestions that the plane was carrying Sarin components. Report by the Dutch government due out tomorrow.*
>
>

From: Graeme Price

This was the one in Amsterdam (?) which crashed into the block of flats on take off (presumably from Schipol [sic] airport) wasn't it? Interesting. One thing which I thought was striking at the time is that there weren't more deaths. A (presumably) fully fuelled cargo jet crashes into a crowded block of flats, at night, minutes after take off and a couple of hundred (IIRC) are killed. It could have been a lot worse (although obviously not if you were one of the people who was killed). Perhaps the combined effects of post-traumatic stress and smoke inhalation/intoxication are responsible for some of the illness?

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 18:10:26 +0100

From: Ward Phil

I worked in British Airways Maintenance in Rhoose airport for a while, if that's the same jet I'm thinking of, that thing went down because one engine detached from the wing, and swang inwards, taking that wing's inner engine out, and then on into the body.

The FAA investigated and found the a pin which is supposed to swivel a detached engine up and over the top of the wing and the let it fly off backwards allowed it to go sideways as well.

Result: Now they're putting two pins on each engine to make sure it up and backwards. Imagine sitting in an aisle seat and seeing that happen!

One good way of taking a plane out is to get into the maintenance sheds and leave something in a fuel tank. In the past, they've discovered big bits of carpet (the inside is uncomfortable to work in!) clogging up fuel intakes, loose tools, and even a full tool kit. they're supposed to X-ray the tank before it leaves, but they don't catch anything.

and of course there was the time someone selectively polished the top of the plane, so it spelt "BUM" in the right light!

PS. That FAA fix is supposed to have been completely carried out on every Jumbo by the end of this year IIRC, but there's no chance they'll get the all done…

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 17:12:55 GMT0BST
From: Robert Thomas

> *Interesting report on NPR this morning about the El Al cargo jet crash in Holland in '92. It seems that the surviving residents (many of them immigrants) of the crash have been having mysterious ailments ever since. The residents accuse the government of secretiveness, the government accuses El Al. Theories range from the depleted uranium apparently used for wing ballast in the plane (I had never heard of this!) to suggestions that the plane was carrying Sarin components. Report by the Dutch government due out tomorrow.*
>
>

There was an artical in one of the Sunday broadsheets in the UK recently (last2-3 weeks) confirming that it was DU onboard the Jumbo that went down. Also mentioned the fact that the captain did a fairly heroic job trying to avoid the flats.

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 18:19:17 +0100

From: Robert Thomas

DU Ballast! That didn't twig in my mind till now…

Come to think of it, I've never heard of anything like that, the only Radiation warnings we had when dealing with jumbo's were when they were x-raying the things…

Where did that come from then?

From: Mark McFadden
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 18:41:20 EST

> *Come to think of it, I've never heard of anything like that, the only Radiation warnings we had when dealing with jumbo's were when they were x-raying the things…*
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The engines in an F-4 Phantom have a box of radioactive material according to the cursory introduction to the engine we electricians got. Dunno the purpose. DU ballast? I'm out of my depth. Makes a good non-military explanation for the presence of DU though.

"Critics questioned the presence of depleted uranium in the wreckage of the limo, but authorities explained that the tires had recently been rebalanced. Go back to sleep America. There's a Very Special Episode of Melrose Place tonight."

Trusts no one.