Plane in ’92 Crash Held Nerve Gas Agent
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JERUSALEM — Israel’s El Al airline confirmed Thursday that a Tel Aviv-bound cargo plane that crashed into an Amsterdam apartment block in 1992 carried a chemical that experts say is a key component of nerve gas.
Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Yahalom ordered the Civil Aviation Authority to investigate what was in the hold of the plane after the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported that it carried chemicals to make nerve gas.
The paper published on its front page a shipping declaration for dangerous goods showing the destination for 190 liters of the chemical as the Israel Institute for Biological Research.
The facility, in the town of Nes Ziona, makes biological weapons, according to foreign reports.
The Dutch Transport Ministry also confirmed that the cargo plane, on its way from New York to Tel Aviv via Amsterdam, was carrying the chemical dimethyl methylphosphonate.
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