El Al 747 - Amsterdam
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El Al plane loses fuselage parts above Netherlands
By Reuters
AMSTERDAM - An El Al cargo plane lost several metal parts above the Netherlands on Sunday, bringing back the painful memories of the country's biggest air disaster when an Israeli cargo jet crashed in Amsterdam in 1992.
An official at the Dutch aviation police said on Monday the cargo plane, flying from New York to Frankfurt, had lost a few cover plates from the fuselage.
The plane landed safely at Schiphol airport at 1600 GMT on Sunday and appeared to have suffered a burst tire as well.
Pamela Kuijpers, spokeswoman at the airport, told Dutch television that the plane was a Boeing 747-200. Asked whether there had been danger of an accident, she said; "Never."
The plane has been towed away after landing for checks and an investigation is under way.
People living in the neighborhood of the airport near Amsterdam had called in with reports of seeing parts falling off the plane. Two metal plates have been recovered.
In 1992, a cargo plane of the Israeli state-owned airline crashed shortly after take-off on two high-rise housing blocks in the Bijlmermeer suburb of Amsterdam, killing 43 people.
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