he parliamentary inquiry into the Bijlmer disaster is set up in response to the Bijlmer disaster in which an ELAL cargo plane crashed into an apartment building in Amsterdam’s Bijlmermeer district on the 4th of October 1992.This plane crash killed at least 43 people.
After the crash, many residents and emergency workers suffered health complaints. The parliamentary inquiry started on 14 October 1998 with the appointment of the inquiry committee, six years after the El Al Boeing crash. The inquiry ended on 22 April 1999 with the presentation of the final report, after which it was debated in the House of Representatives.
The main reason for the inquiry was lack of clarity about the cargo that had been on the plane and the failure of the internal parliamentary enquiry into the cargo documents. The ongoing health complaints of residents and emergency workers were also discussed at length. The primary goals in the investigation were ‘truth-telling’ and ‘drawing lessons for the future’.
The main questions are of the parliamentary inquiry: how did the Dutch authorities handle the disaster? What was the exact cargo of the plane? Was it indeed military cargo? Was the crash site visited by mysterious men dressed in special suits, and if this was the case why were they there and what did they take away? What was the influence of the crash on the health of the people living near the crash site and the fire brigades, police- and emergency teams? And what is the truth behind the strange diseases that are reported by some people living in the area?
A year after the presentation of the final report of the Bijlmer disaster inquiry committee the background reportage program Weltspiegel from the German first public TV channel ARD broadcasts a reportage about the outcome and what happened after. In the reportage some witnesses, different journalists and citizens that did research after the crash and politicians are portrayed and interviewed.
For this reportage Featurez gave advice, did the research, set-up and plannig, accompanied the filming, did some direction and interviews and translations.