LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2 April 1969 |
| Type | Weather |
| Site | Near Zawoja, Poland |
| Passengers | 47 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Fatalities | 53 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Antonov An-24 |
| Operator | LOT Polish Airlines |
| Tail number | SP-LTF |
| Flight origin | Warsaw |
| Destination | Cracow Balice airport |
LOT Polish Airlines Flight LO 165, operated by an Antonov An-24 aircraft, registration SP-LTF, en route from Warsaw to Cracow Balice airport crashed during a snowstorm on the northern slope of Polica mountain near Zawoja in southern Poland on 2 April 1969 at 16:07 local time (UTC+1), killing all 53 people (47 passengers and 6 crew) on board. There were three Americans and one London resident among the passengers, all others being Polish citizens.
The aircraft hit the mountain at an altitude of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft).
Contents |
[edit] Flight history
[edit] Introduction
The official accident report, published in 1970, blamed the pilot for getting lost. No reasons were given why the aircraft, just before the crash, was flying at such a low altitude some 50 kilometres (31 mi) past its intended destination.
Information given below comes from two newspaper articles [1] [2] published in 1994, with a summary written by a third party available on-line [3]. The journalist wrote that even 25 yeas after the accident most of the documentations remained classified, so his main sources were interviews with participants in the rescue action and some members of the accident investigation commission who asked for anonymity.
[edit] The flight
The aircraft takes off at 15:20 (all times are local: UTC+1) for a 50 minute flight to Cracow's Balice airport. At 15.49 the first officer receives a routine instruction: after passing Jędrzejów, some 50 km north of the destination, descend to 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) and get in touch with the Balice control tower. At that time a military radar registers the aircraft at 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Shortly before 16:00 the captain (who took over controls in the meantime) calls Balice, gives the altitude as 3,700 metres (12,000 ft), gets the local weather report and is instructed to descend to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft).
At 16:01 the aircraft is at 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) and descending. In the next eight minutes a series of radio exchanges takes place between the aircraft and the Balice radar operator, with the captain repeatedly asking for the fix and reporting problems with the beacon signal, and the operator asking for the aircraft's position and altitude to help him to find the aircraft on the radar screen. At 16:05 the aircraft is near Maków Podhalański, some 50 km past the destination, at 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). At 16:08:47 the radio contact is lost.
[edit] References
- ^ Pałosz, Jerzy (10 June 1994), “Tragedia pod Zawoją (English: Tragedy near Zawoja)”, Gazeta Krakowska: pages 6-7
- ^ Pałosz, Jerzy (11 June 1994), “Tragedia pod Zawoją (2) (English: Tragedy near Zawoja (2))”, Gazeta Krakowska: page 3
- ^ Aviation tragedy on Polica. Retrieved on 2008-04-01.A summary of the Gazeta Krakowska articles, includes photographs from the crash site (Polish)
- accident database from Aviation Safety Net
