Warsaw airport closed after lot pilot crash lands airplane
The Polish capital’s main airport remained closed today after a Boeing Co. 767 operated by national carrier LOT made a crash-landing at the airfield.
None of the 231 passengers and crew on the Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT SA flight from Newark, New Jersey, was injured when the plane landed on its belly after the landing gear failed to deploy, airline spokesman Andrzej Kozlowski said, adding that it’s too early to say whether the plane is permanently damaged.
“Boeing is sending experts over from the U.S. today to make an assessment,” he said by phone. “It’s hard to say what the consequences of the crash will be for LOT longer term.”
The widebody plane, piloted by Captain Tadeusz Wrona, skidded to a halt on Warsaw’s main runway yesterday after landing on its fuselage. A small fire erupted from an engine that was extinguished in seconds as emergency personnel doused the jet and passengers were hustled through exits.
“We were prepared for a hard landing,” Dominik Domecki, who was on the flight with his wife and two children, told TVN24. “It wasn’t hard, it was fantastically soft.”
There was only a “moment” of panic when the captain first made the official announcement about an emergency landing, Domecki said, adding that passengers were drilled on how to evacuate. The first passengers were out within 20 seconds.
25,000 Passengers
While Warsaw’s Chopin airport is due to stay closed until 4 a.m. tomorrow, it may reopen earlier if LOT succeeds in removing the plane more quickly than expected, airport spokesman Przemyslaw Przybylski said. The airport services about 400 flights and 25,000 passengers daily, Przybylski added.
“The runway wasn’t damaged at all by the crash landing,” he said by phone today. “A few of the runway lamps were broken, but some of those have already been mended and the others, that are underneath the plane, can be put right in no time at all once the aircraft has been shifted.”
Boeing, based in Seattle, said it’s committed to the safety of its aircraft and ready to help.
“We are in communication with our customer and we stand ready to provide technical assistance if invited to do so,” Julie O’Donnell, a spokeswoman, said via e-mail yesterday.
The 767 had circled for an hour to burn off excess fuel while Polish Air Force F-16 jets provided visual confirmation that the wheels had failed to lower. Wrona, who has 20 years’ experience flying Boeings, crash-landed “perfectly,” LOT Chief Executive Officer Marcin Pirog said at a briefing yesterday.
Pilot’s Training
“This is all part of a pilot’s training, but they knew the routine, the airport was ready and everybody walked away, which is how you measure the success of these things,” said David Learmount, a former Royal Air Force pilot and safety editor at Flight International magazine. “It’s a rare event. You could fly every day of your life and it wouldn’t happen.”
LOT said in a statement that a fault with the plane’s central hydraulic system was probably responsible for the landing gear failing to deploy. Flight LO 016 was carrying 11 crew members and 220 passengers, who were later attended by a support team and psychologists, it said. The only hospital admission concerned a pregnant woman suffering from stress.
LOT has 54 planes in its fleet, including five Boeing 767- 300ERs and nine 737 narrowbodies, according to its website. The company also has orders for eight 787 Dreamliners worth $1.33 billion at list price, with deliveries due to start next year.