Docu-drama ‘The Crash’ puts a human face on a Dutch air disaster

When a plane crashes into a building in Amsterdam, powerful figures can’t face the questions asked of them.

Woman with dark curly hair and glasses lookes solemnly into the distance.

Joy Delima as crash survivor Asha Willems. Credit: KRO-NCRV / Big Blue

Dutch docu-drama series The Crash may centre around a notorious plane crash, but it’s far from a dry and technical Air Crash Investigation-style recounting of this tragic incident. Instead, it’s a masterful dramatisation of the disaster’s political and social aftermath: something that’s clear in the opening scene, where lead character Asha Willems (Joy Delima) tells an inquiry that “this isn’t about paperwork, this is about people”.

Woman with curly hair in dark suit sits at table in front of microphone.

Asha Willems (Joy Delima). Credit: KRO-NCRV / Big Blue

Over its five episodes, The Crash (originally titled Rampvlucht) turns an eye to the crash’s many marginalised victims: residents of an Amsterdam suburb where apparently unscathed survivors began suffering mysterious health problems after a cargo jet ploughed into their neighbourhood.

That accident is El Al flight 1862, which took off from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on 4 October 1992, losing two engines and crashing into the Bijlmermeer housing project. At least 43 people were killed, but the exact death toll is disputed, as Bijlmermeer was known for housing many undocumented migrants living there unofficially. The attitude at the time of some in the Netherlands to the large migrant population in the Bijlmermeer complex (many of whom hailed from Ghana and former Dutch colonies like Suriname) is made all too clear by one official on the show, who dismissively says that it was lucky that flight 1862 didn’t careen into Amsterdam’s city centre.

Originally released for the 30-year anniversary of the crash in 2022, The Crash succeeds in correcting that attitude, capturing this oft-demonised slice of Amsterdam with pathos and humanity. After surviving the crash by sheer luck, veterinarian Asha Willems uses her connections in Amsterdam’s Zuidoost district (home to Bijlmermeer) to start documenting unusual medical conditions – skin problems, difficulty breathing – among people who had been close to the fiery crash but not injured, even as officials insist that the plane was carrying flowers and perfume.

Two men stand beside a car, one talking animatedly. A plane on a runway can be seen in the background.

Vincent Dekker (Thomas Höppener) and Pierre Heijboer (Yorick van Wageningen) fight to find out more. Credit: KRO -NCRV / Big Blue

Meanwhile, journalists Vincent Dekker (Thomas Höppener) and Pierre Heijboer (Yorick van Wageningen) are also investigating other oddities stemming from the crash – such as the strange inability of investigators to find the plane’s cockpit recorder. Having difficulty making inroads with the (rightfully suspicious) residents around Bijlmermeer, the journalists team up with Asha to get to the bottom of what happened and what the plane was carrying.

It’s this intriguing political investigation that carries The Crash: with the El Al explosion relegated to the first half-hour of the show and much of the drama occurring months afterwards, it’s less about the fear and panic of the moment, and more about long-term trauma mixed with political intrigue. It’s not really about what went wrong on flight 1862, but about the actions of powerful bureaucracies – the Dutch government, El Al, Boeing. In this sense, there’s more than an echo of 2019 miniseries Chernobyl here, but also stories that focus on speaking truth to power, like Irish film In The Name Of The Father, with its investigation of false accusations of guilt that followed an IRA bombing in the 1970s.

The combination of Asha, Vincent and Pierre is a terrific vehicle for driving the plot down this path. They each bring their own motivations to the case: Asha, to help her community; Vincent, to prove himself as a young journalist, and Pierre, to stave off forced retirement after behaving erratically at work. This odd-trio set up also allows each actor to truly shine: with a torrent of turbulent emotions wrapped up in an ultra-poised delivery, Delima is the star here. Yet she’s supported with flair by Höppener as the quiet yet hyper-diligent Vincent, and van Wageningen as his older, loose-cannon counterpart.

Young man with dark hair and moustache looks sideways.

Vincent Dekker (Thomas Höppener). Credit: KRO-NCRV / Big Blue

These performances lean subtle, and this quieter approach heightens the social tension underpinning this show. It’s a stylistic choice that permeates The Crash, even among its bit players. For example, when Asha is pushing Ghanaian immigrant Kofi to speak about his health problems after the crash, his refusal (for fear of jeopardising his pending residency permit) is understated and feels ever more real; a blunt, traumatised refusal to address something that has already caused so much pain.

Two people huddle, looking afraid, in front of a burning background.

'The Crash' delves into the aftermath of the crash. Credit: KRO-NCRV / Big Blue

Even the crash sequence itself takes this path: flashy special effects are mostly eschewed in favour of a series of vignettes that highlight the human emotion of Bijlmermeer’s residents in that terrible moment. Fittingly, the show doesn’t even begin with the crash, but rather, with the average, everyday lives of the project’s residents, reminding us that their identities predate their status as crash victims.

This restrained approach is what allows the political and social machinations of The Crash to shine through. It’s not about the unthinkable loudness at the moment of the disaster, but the subtler yet equally impactful actions that happen after – be it Asha and company investigating, or powerful people refusing to admit error or truth. It may not have the explosions and emergency sirens, but it’s where the real impact of this show lies.

Five-part series 'The Crash' is streaming now

at SBS On Demand