LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165

Infobox Airliner accident|name=LOT Polish Airlines 165
Date=2 April 1969
Type=Weather
Site=Near Zawoja, Poland
coords=coord|49|38|0|N|19|38|0|E|display=inline,title
Fatalities=53
Injuries= 0
Aircraft Type=Antonov An-24
Operator=LOT Polish Airlines
Tail Number=SP-LTF
Passengers=47
Crew=6
Survivors =0
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 convert|1200|m.

Flight history

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 convert|50|km past its intended destination.

Information given below comes from two newspaper articles Citation
last = Pałosz
first = Jerzy
title = Tragedia pod Zawoją ( _en. Tragedy near Zawoja)
newspaper = Gazeta Krakowska
pages = pages 6-7
year = 1994
date = 10 June 1994] Citation
last = Pałosz
first = Jerzy
title = Tragedia pod Zawoją (2) ( _en. Tragedy near Zawoja (2))
newspaper = Gazeta Krakowska
pages = page 3
year = 1994
date = 11 June 1994] published in 1994, with a summary written by a third party available on-line cite web|url=http://www.zswsucha.iap.pl/STREFA_N/WiLeHi/zawoja/tragedia.html
title=Aviation tragedy on Polica|accessdate=2008-04-01A summary of the "Gazeta Krakowska" articles, includes photographs from the crash site pl icon] . The journalist wrote that even 25 years after the accident, most of the documentation 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.

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 convert|1500|m and get in touch with the Balice control tower. At that time a military radar registers the aircraft at convert|4000|m. Shortly before 16:00 the captain (who took over controls in the meantime) calls Balice, gives the altitude as convert|3700|m, gets the local weather report and is instructed to descend to convert|1200|m.

At 16:01 the aircraft is at convert|2400|m 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 convert|1200|m. At 16:08:47 the radio contact is lost.

References

* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19690402-1 accident database] from Aviation Safety Net

External links

* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C1EFD355D137A93C1A9178FD85F4D8685F9 New York Times, 3 April 1969 ]