LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16
Boeing 767-35D(ER) · Landing gear failure leading to belly landing
From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA12WA009
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 231
- Survivors
- 231
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Boeing 767-35D(ER)
- Flight
- LO16
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 767
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- SP-LPC
- Operator
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)To Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Organizational issues › Development
- Environmental issues › Task environment
- Organizational issues › Management
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 was a scheduled flight from Newark, United States, to Warsaw, Poland. On 1 November, 2011, the Boeing 767 operating the route made a successful gear-up emergency landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport, after its landing gear failed to extend. All 231 people on board (220 passengers and 11 crew) survived without serious injuries. A leak in one of the aircraft's hydraulic systems occurred shortly after takeoff, resulting in the loss of all of the hydraulic fluid supplying the primary landing gear system.
Incident
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 was scheduled to arrive at Warsaw Chopin Airport from Newark Liberty International Airport on 1 November 2011 at 13:35 CET with 220 passengers and 11 crew on board.
Within 30 minutes of departing from Newark, the crew received a warning that the center hydraulic system had malfunctioned. The decision was made to continue to Warsaw in order to use up the heavy load of fuel needed for the transatlantic flight. The aircraft proceeded to approach as normal, but aborted when the landing gear failed to deploy.
The crew informed Warsaw air traffic control (ATC) that they were unable to lower the landing gear due to a hydraulic system failure. The captain decided to circle the airport for over an hour, to consume excess fuel and to allow time for ground emergency services to prepare for the landing, including covering the runway with a fire suppression foam. Visual observation by two Polish Air Force F-16 fighter jets verified that none of the landing gear were down; attempts to lower the landing gear by alternative means failed.
Flight crew
Flight 16 was captained by Tadeusz Wrona, a 57-year-old veteran pilot with twenty years of Boeing 767 experience. Both the captain and the 51-year-old first officer, Jerzy Szwarc, held Airline Transport Pilot Licenses with a combined total of over 25,000 flying hours, including 15,000 hours on the Boeing 767. This accident gave rise to a new saying (Wrona in Polish means crow): "Leć jak Orzeł, ląduj jak Wrona" (Fly like an eagle, land like a crow).
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The preliminary report by the SCAAI found that a hydraulic leak occurred shortly after takeoff, after the landing gear and flaps were retracted. The leak was caused by excessive bending of a flexible hose in the center hydraulic system, resulting in the loss of all fluid in that system. The drop in pressure was indicated by the EICAS and recorded by the flight data recorder.
Later investigation indicated a popped circuit breaker just to the right of the F/O at floor level would have enabled the electric motor for releasing the undercarriage. The breaker was reset after landing and the undercarriage extended normally.
The final report of the accident was released in 2017. The causes of the accident were the center hydraulic hose leak, the C829 circuit breaker popping, and the flight crew's failure to detect the C829 breaker during the approach, which could have allowed them to lower the landing gear. Contributing factors were the lack of safeguards to prevent accidental opening of circuit breakers, the C829 circuit breaker being in a low position where the flight crew would have difficulty noticing its condition, LOT's operations center inadequate procedures, and LOT's failure to incorporate a Boeing service bulletin on the prevention of excessive bending in the hydraulic system hose.
Text from the Wikipedia article “LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16” (revision 1358419857, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On November 1, 2011, LOT Polskie Linie Lotnicze flight 16, a Boeing 767, registration SP-LPC, conducted an emergency gear up landing on runway 33 at Warszawa-Frédéric Chopin Airport (EPWA), Warsaw, Poland. There were no injuries to the passengers and crewmembers but the airplane sustained substantial damage. The regularly scheduled passenger flight originated in Newark-Liberty International Airport, Newark, New Jersey.
The investigation is being conducted by the State Commission on Aircraft Accident Investigation of Poland. The NTSB has appointed an Accredited Representative to assist the investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13 as the Country of Manufacture and Design of the airplane.
All requests for information should be directed to:
State Commission on Aircraft Accident Investigation Ministry of Infrastructure 00-928 Warsaw, POLAND Telephone: 0048 22 630 10 00
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16
- Revision
- 1358419857 · 2026-06-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2054084
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA12WA009
- Event ID
- 20111103X41530
- Case number
- DCA12WA009
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16" (page 33603461, revision 1358419857); merged with NTSB case DCA12WA009 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA12WA009
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16" and NTSB case DCA12WA009, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.