On October 4, 1992, one of the largest air disasters in Dutch history took place here. A Boeing 747 cargo plane from of the Israeli airline El Al, crashed into two high rise apartment blocks in the Amsterdam district of Bijlmermeer. The plane was on its way from New York to Tel Aviv with a stopover at Schiphol. The disaster took the lives of 43 people including the three crew members and the only passenger on the plane. It's also possible that many more people were killed as the apartment blocks at Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg were known to be inhabited by illegal aliens. More than 100 apartments were destroyed and a year later this tragedy was given a bizarre dimension when it was revealed that right after the disaster 'about twenty men in white suits' were spotted at the site of the crash. These men in 'astronaut suits' weren't able to speak Dutch and supposedly retrieved vital evidence. Unplanned extra flights to Israel were also executed in secret. Speculation arose that the plane hadn't only been transporting 114 tonnes of fruit, perfume and spare parts, but had also carried secret military cargo, which had been spirited away by Mossad agents (the guys in white suits) after the crash. The case has never really been cleared to anyone's satisfaction. After the tragedy, survivors and relatives of the victims needed a place where they could share their grief. A tree, which had survived the crash and fire, was picked as a suitable place. Candles and photographs were placed around this 'tree that witnessed everything'. Every year the victims are commemorated here and during this remembrance planes aren't allowed to fly over Bijlmer, which is usually under a busy Schiphol flight path.