Locals overjoyed by advice to allow more access to archives on Bijlmer plane crash
Bijlmer residents and others involved are overjoyed that the Advisory Board on Public Access and Information Management (ACOI) urged the government to give them access to the archives on the Bijlmer plane crash in 1992. According to the ACOI, the denied access to the archives contributes to speculation about the disaster and distrust of the government.
“It’s almost too good to be true,” Lonny Wesseling of the former Bijlmermeer Air Traffic Working Group told Parool. “Hopefully, the advice will be accepted, and things will be opened up quickly. But I am already very pleased and relieved.”
On 4 October 1992, a cargo plane from the Israeli airline El Al crashed into two apartment buildings in Bijlmer, Amsterdam. The crash killed 43 people, including the three crew members on the plane. The Archives Act and international agreements on investigations into aircraft accidents state that the Aviation Council’s archives on the Bijlmer plane crash should be confidential until 2068.
The ACOI studied the files in the Bijlmer disaster archive and concluded that the government can publish large parts of those archives without violating the agreements. 27 files can be made public without further ado, and large parts of the remaining 64 files can also be exempted from the confidentiality clauses.
Thirty years after the crash, there is still much uncertainty about the disaster and how it was handled, the ACOI said in a report presented in Amsterdam on Friday. “The focus on technical investigation and poor communication left room for many questions and speculation about the cargo on the flight in particular. This has contributed to the mystification of the disaster and a growing distrust of government action.”
“Light is the best medicine against dark backrooms,” the ACOI said, urging the government to give survivors, loved ones, locals, scientists, and the media full or partial access to the archives. “The government can say that it can be trusted, but above all, it must show it is trustworthy by opening windows and doors and daring to let people in.”
The ACOI recommended not only making the files public but also setting up a comprehensive guide with a description of all documents and where they can be found, to make them accessible to everyone.
