''
is a grey poplar (Populus × canescens''). The tree is located on the Nellesteinpad in
Bijlmermeer and was planted during the early years of the neighbourhood ( mid to late 1960s).
Crash of El Al Flight 1862 , with the tree being located behind the destroyed buildings On 4 October 1992,
El Al Flight 1862, a cargo flight from
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS/EHAM) to Tel Aviv
Ben Gurion Airport (TLV/LLBG) operated by a
Boeing 747-200 of
El Al Israel Airlines, crashed into the flats at Bijlmermeer 15 minutes after takeoff due to two of its engines breaking off the wing mid-flight, damaging
flight control surfaces. While the official death toll is at 43, the exact number of ground fatalities could not be determined accurately as the buildings housed many illegal immigrants. Another uncertainty is the cargo carried by the aircraft, which was not properly logged by the airline. A medical research by the
Academic Medical Center concluded that a dozen cases of
autoimmune disorders among the survivors could be directly attributed to the crash. Residents claimed that this was the result of undisclosed military cargo on board the flight. ''
was located next to the buildings into which the plane crashed, but managed to survive the impact and subsequent fire. As a result of the crash, the soil near the accident site was polluted by harmful substances and resulted in the removal of many trees. De Boom Die Alles Zag
was kept at its place, but lost some parts of its roots during the sanitization process, which caused the tree to become crooked. Due to the eye-shaped patterns on the trunk, the grey poplar species is sometimes nicknamed the "''" ( eyetree) in The Netherlands. The tree in Bijlmermeer is hence considered to be an eyewitness to "the panic[,] upheaval [and] the aftermath in the years that followed [the crash]", comparable to
The Survivor Tree and the
Anne Frank tree.
Subsequent history Following the accident, the soil under the tree was replaced with sand, where the roots were only able to recover to a limited extent. To prevent it from falling over, the tree was attached to neighbouring trees with two cables. In 2013, its
crown was reduced in size after a pulling test showed that the tree was unstable. The sand was replaced with soil again in 2017 in an attempt to stimulate root growth. The Bijlmer Museum—which includes the tree—has been a "" since 2018. In 2020, it was reported that the tree had a parasitic fungus in the base of its trunk. Two further tests the following year where the tree was pulled with a force of showed that its condition had improved, but still was worse than ideal. As a result, the cables were loosened but not fully removed. In February 2021,
saplings from the tree were sent to a tree nursery in
Glimmen,
Groningen, at the request of the
Municipality of Amsterdam, to secure its survival in the unlikely case it had to be cut down. It would take at least five years for the new trees to grow enough to be planted back in Amsterdam. == Monument and legacy ==