LOT aircraft accident near Tuszyn

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LOT aircraft accident near Tuszyn
Samolot Li-2.jpg

Identical Lissunow Li-2 of the LOT
Accident summary
Accident type Loss of control after engine failure
place Górki Duże near Tuszyn , PolandPoland 1944Poland 
date November 15, 1951
Fatalities 16
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Lissunov Li-2
operator Poland 1944Poland Polskie line Lotnicze LOT
Mark Poland 1944Poland SP-LKA
Departure airport Szczecin-Dąbie Airport , PolandPoland 1944Poland 
1. Stopover Poznań-Ławica Airport , PolandPoland 1944Poland 
2. Stopover Łódź Lublinek Airport , PolandPoland 1944Poland 
Destination airport Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport , Kraków PolandPoland 1944Poland 
Passengers 12
crew 4th
Lists of aviation accidents

A LOT aircraft accident occurred on November 15, 1951 near Tuszyn , when a Lissunow Li-2 of the Polskie line Lotnicze LOT crashed after an engine failure. There were already technical defects on the aircraft before departure. The captain then refused to fly with the Lissunow, but was forced to do so under threat of violence. Shortly after take-off, only 16 kilometers from the airport, the Lissunow crashed. All 16 occupants of the machine died in the accident. It was the first fatal LOT incident after the end of World War II .

machine

The aircraft was a Lissunow Li-2, built in 1943 and originally built for the Soviet Air Force . After the end of the war, in 1945, the Polish Air Force received the aircraft and 9 other identical machines, which they handed over to the Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT. The LOT was converted into a civil usable Li-2. This type of aircraft was a Soviet license replica of the Douglas DC-3 . The machine had the aircraft registration SP-LKA and the serial number 18438505 . It was powered by two air-cooled 9-cylinder radial engines of the type M-62IR .

Passengers and crew

The flight from Łódź to Kraków had 12 passengers and 4 crew members. The captain was the 33-year-old Marian Buczkowski, the father of the Polish actor Zbigniew Buczkowski . The first officer was Hieronim Bakalus. There were also two flight attendants on board.

Flight history

The Lissunow Li-2 was on a domestic flight from Szczecin to Kraków. The flight was to consist of three flight segments, with two scheduled stopovers in Poznań and Łódź. The machine was able to land safely at both airports and was prepared for the onward flight to the last flight segment.

the accident

A few minutes after taking off from Łódź Airport, the Lissunow suffered engine damage, which resulted in a stall. At Tuszyn , the machine got caught in power lines, crashed into a field, and went up in flames. All 16 inmates were killed.

root cause

Bad weather with low-hanging clouds and fog and a pilot's error were given as the official cause of the accident.

According to research by journalists who interviewed an eyewitness to the incidents at Łódź Airport, the circumstances that led to the crash were different: the machine had already had technical defects before it arrived in Łódź. After the stopover around 9 a.m., Captain Buczkowski pointed out that there were problems with an engine and refused to continue flying with the Lissunow, as he did not want to endanger the lives of the passengers. An officer from the Ministry of Public Security then entered the pilots' lounge and described Buczkowski as an imperialist reactionary and his behavior as a provocation. He stressed that a high-ranking member of his authority urgently needed to get to Krakow and accused the captain of being friends with pilots of the Western Royal Air Force . When Captain Buczkowski calmly stressed that he would not fly because he did not want to endanger the lives of his passengers, the officer had drawn his pistol. He put it to the captain's head, released the safety catch and given him the choice of flying the machine or being shot. Buczkowski then asked the first officer Bakalus to assemble the rest of the crew and announced that they would fly on to Krakow. The captain then reluctantly got back into the engine.

Commemoration

On November 27, 2010, an obelisk was erected at the site of the crash to commemorate Captain Buczkowski, the crew and the passengers. The inauguration of the monument was attended by the pilot's son, Zbigniew Buczkowski, his two brothers Waldemar and Marian, as well as representatives of the Polskie line Lotnicze LOT.

See also

swell