LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703 was a plane that crash-landed about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of Rogóżno railway station, on 2 November 1988. In the accident one person was killed and several were seriously injured.

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703

A LOT Polish Airlines Antonov An-24, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date	2 November 1988 (1988-11-02)
Summary	Icing causing engine failure
Site	Białobrzegi, Poland 50°06′05″N 22°19′25″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Antonov An-24B
Aircraft name	Dunajec
Operator	LOT Polish Airlines
Registration	SP-LTD
Flight origin	Okecie Airport
Destination	Rzeszów Airport
Occupants	29
Passengers	25
Crew	4
Fatalities	1
Injuries	28
Survivors	28

As of March 2024, the crash was LOT Polish Airlines' last disaster.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved, purchased in April 1966,^[1] was a 22-year-old Antonov An-24B registered as SP-LTD and named Dunajec.^[1][2][3] The Antonov An-24 is a Soviet-built twin-engine turboprop aircraft, entering into commercial service in 1963. The aircraft can seat up to 50 people, with the aircraft involved having a capacity of up to 48 seats.^[4]

Passengers and crew

There were 25 passengers and 4 crew members on board the aircraft, with radio journalist Tomasz Beksiński also among the passengers on board the aircraft.^[5] Of the passengers, four of them were foreigners. These included one British, one American, and two Dutch passengers.^[6] Two of the passengers were undercover officers, who were part of the Milicja Obywatelska, insuring the aircraft's safety.^[7]

The flight crew consisted of the Captain Kazimierz Rożek, who had 30 years of flying experience,^[3][8] and first officer Waldemara Wolskiego.^[3]

Accident

The burned wreckage of the aircraft

The aircraft took off from Warsaw Chopin Airport en route to Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport. Shortly before arrival in Jasionka, the aircraft's engines failed and could not be restarted. As the aircraft began to descend, passengers who were being lifted up were told to hold onto their seats. Unable to manoeuvre, with an emergency landing being their sole option, the captain decided to land on a "long and relatively flat field". The captain, with the help of the first officer, managed to conduct a gear-up landing on the field.^[3] The plane crashed short of its destination.^[6]

The Polish Press Agency (PAP) originally reported that 16 people had been killed.^[9] The report was later retracted, confirming the account of a local police officer who told The Associated Press that one person had been killed,^[10] as officials from LOT Polish Airlines said that the confusion might have been caused by several passengers leaving the crash site, before making their way to a nearby road and hitching rides from motorists, leading authorities into initially presuming that they were dead.^[1][4] Authorities reported that five people were hospitalized with a further ten being treated for minor injuries before being released.^[10] A hospital in Łańcut treated 13 people, hospitalizing 3 of them.^[11]

The accident was the airline's first crash since LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 on 9 May 1987,^[12] and the last disaster involving the airline as of March 2024.^[3]

Investigation

The PAP said that while near the city of Rzeszów, the aircraft's engines failed.^[13] According to the Associated Press, the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure.^[11] LOT Polish Airlines spokesman Jerzy Wojdylo stated that the weather was good and that eyewitnesses reported an eagle hitting the aircraft.^[12]