LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | May 9, 1987 |
| Type | engine failure and loss of flight controls |
| Site | Warsaw, Poland |
| Passengers | 172 |
| Crew | 11 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Fatalities | 183 (passengers:172 crew:11) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Ilyushin Il-62 |
| Operator | LOT Polish Airlines |
| Tail number | SP-LBG |
| Flight origin | Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport, Poland (WAW/EPWA) |
| Destination | John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York (JFK/KJFK) |
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 crashed in the Kabaty Woods nature reserve on the outskirts of Warsaw on May 9, 1987. The aircraft was an Ilyushin Il-62M named after Tadeusz Kościuszko. The probable cause of the crash was an engine explosion due to faulty bearings inside the number 2 engine and loss of flight controls.
The damaged plane tried to return to Warsaw airport but a rapidly spreading in-flight fire caused a total failure of surviving flight controls - plane trim. The aircraft crashed into the ground at 480 km/h in the forest 6 kilometers away from the Warsaw airport. The last words recorded by the flight recorder inside the cockpit at 11:12:13 were "Cześć! Giniemy!" (eng. Goodbye! We are dying!). No one survived the crash.
