AMSTERDAM (PTI): Rescue teams searched for any survivors in Oct.4, air disaster in which more than 250 people were feared to have died after an Israeli cargo plane crashed into an apartment complex and burst into flames.
The mayor of Amsterdam, Ed Van Thijn, said Monday that 209 people lived in the 80 apartments near the city’s Schiphol airport that were hit by the Israeli El-Al Airlines Boeing, the Dutch ANP News agency and radio Netherlands reported.
A Dutch spokesman said a number of bodies had been found but declined to give the exact number, while messages of condolence and sympathy poured in from across the globe.
Two Israeli enquiry commissions Monday left Tel Aviv for Amsterdam to investigate the circumstances and cause of the disaster and prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, told a news conference that a thorough investigation would be made into the crash,
Asked whether he was ruling out sabotage, Rabin said every possibility would be examined.
The BBC television quoted an El-Al spokesman as saying that it was too soon to rule out anything.
The airline jumbo was carrying a cargo of perfume, electronic equipment, textiles and machinery. It had a three-man crew and one passenger on board and was taking off from Schiphol to Tel
Radio Netherlands earlier said the fire brigade had ruled out the ability of finding anyone alive in the flats.
A Dutch spokesman said it was impossible at the moment to know about the size of the catastrophe, the worst air crash involving non-airline victims on the ground, “We expect that over the next couple of days we will have the exact information,”
Article extracted from this publication >> October 16, 1992
