For me, the Bijlmer disaster is a grim memory that comes back every year.

It is not an everyday topic: where were you when the Bijlmer disaster occurred? But this disaster, of 4 October 1992, is discussed every year, especially by eyewitnesses. For me, it is a grim memory that comes back every year. And now for the 30th time.

'The Bijlmer disaster is the name given to the air disaster that took place on Sunday evening, 4 October 1992. A Boeing 747 cargo plane, flight LY-1862 of Israeli airline El Al, crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg flats in Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer district. The disaster claimed the lives of at least 43 people, including the plane's three-member crew and sole passenger.' Wikipedia

Where were you?

I was in my final year of studying Media and Theatre Studies at the University of Amsterdam and I was allowed to produce a video film for a study group I was in. It was a reportage about Diemen's Jewish cemetery entitled 'Graves where there are no flowers'. On 4 October 1992, I and two other fellow students were at the cemetery in question shooting footage for my film.

It was just half past six in the evening when we were picked up by Freek, our camerawoman's friend. The stuff was loaded into the car and we headed for the faculty on Nieuwe Doelenstraat. Just before we drove onto the Gooischeweg, we were run off the road by police cars, ambulances, and fire engines with sirens blaring. What was going on? Back then, you couldn't look up what was on social media on your smartphone. But Freek had a 'scanner' in the car with which you could pick up all kinds of amateur radio stations (bakkies). He switched it on and tragedy unfolded. A man screamed and cried in panic: "There's a fire, a plane crashed here..." It became grimly quiet in the car. With bewilderment, we listened briefly to what he was shouting. Freek turned off the radio scanner.

Concern

Then suddenly the director's assistant said that her sister lived in the Bijlmer. Where exactly the plane had crashed, of course, we did not know. From her face the anxiety could be read. At the faculty, she went into an office to call her sister. I waited for her in the corridor. It was an unreal situation. Suppose the plane had crashed into her flat? Were we then going to the Bijlmer to look for her. Moments later, it turned out that her sister was just sitting at home unharmed.

Our media teacher was still in the control room and we told him what had happened. He said, "You should have gone filming! Then you would have become famous overnight." Yes, we could have done that. We still had ampex recording tape left. But could I have handled that? Filming burning corpses in the dark, snapshots of people screaming in blind panic, close-ups of the rubble of collapsed flats and more misery. Would I have done any good with that? It was nothing to me. Bijlmer resident and graphic designer Henk van de Belt filmed with his Video 8 camera one of the first images.

Weeks

We all went home dead tired. I watched the news late into the night. The next day the stories came. My mother-in-law, who was cycling near Naarden, had seen an engine of the Israeli plane fall into the Gooimeer. Later, I heard from another in-law, who lived in the Bijlmer, that the fire caused by the plane crash at Kruitberg and Groeneveen had caused enormous damage. The apartment buildings next to the impact site were covered in soot for days. For weeks after the disaster, you could still smell the smell of fire and paraffin throughout the Bijlmer.

Authorities reported that the Bijlmer disaster had claimed the lives of at least 43 people. In an air disaster like this, with a lot of fire and heat, it is difficult to trace victims. The remaining rubble of the flats became a cemetery for the dead who remained unidentified.

Golden Flame

In Diemen at the Jewish cemetery, you do see stones with names on them; these were not unknown deceased as there may have been left in the rubble of the Bijlmer disaster. While editing my reportage, I didn't think much about that disaster day. The film had to be finished before I graduated. During my graduation ceremony, the video film was shown. The impression was great. Less than a year later, I won the second prize in the reportage category at the national video festival 'Golden Flame'. I was a celebrity for a while after all.

Good to know

You can see my report 'Digging where there are no flowers' below. https://youtu.be/7v6-6fG2JUg