Polska Nowa Wieś air accident

The Polska Nowa Wieś air crash occurred on 16 September 1984. On that day, an Antonov An-2T, completely overcrowded with 25 people and overloaded, crashed shortly after takeoff from Opole-Polska Nowa Wieś Airfield. Twelve people were killed in the accident.

Accident sequence

During the air show day, several problems became apparent in the operating procedures. For one thing, no persons in charge were designated who would have been entrusted with the boarding of the passengers, which is why members of the aviation club such as parachutists or glider pilots spontaneously took on this role. A further problem was that, in addition to the passengers who had bought a ticket, members of the Polish People's Army who had helped with organising the air show day were also let on board the aircraft. There were no seats on board for the army members; on each flight a handful of them flew along. The transport of the army members was organised by their superior, who had come to an agreement about it with the management of the aviation club. Whereas on the preceding flights there had been several army members on board the aircraft each time, on the last flight there were a good dozen of them. According to witness statements, after all passengers had boarded the aircraft, someone opened the rear passenger door, put a finger to their lips and let the soldiers on board without the captain's knowledge. The soldiers, who were in the rear part of the aircraft, reportedly crouched down after boarding the Antonov. Under these circumstances, the aircraft took off overloaded and with an incorrect load distribution. When the captain noticed immediately after lift-off that the aircraft was tail-heavy, he shouted: “Everyone to the front!”, whereupon the soldiers moved forward in the aircraft. The tail then rose; however, because of the low altitude, control of the aircraft was lost in the process, and it fell to the ground nose first. The captain, who at this point realised that a collision was unavoidable, then rolled the aircraft to the left so that it would strike wing first, thereby absorbing impact energy. Although there were 700 litres of fuel in the tanks at the time of impact, there was no explosion.

Accident investigation

The airfield remained closed for weeks after the accident. During the investigation it was established that there were a large number of people responsible for the accident. The main responsibility was assigned to the organisers of the event, since they had not informed the flight director that additional flight capacity was needed for military personnel. When the commander of the army unit learned that the flight to be carried out was to be the last one of the day, he sent his soldiers to the aircraft. The member of the aviation club responsible for flight safety allowed himself to be pressured and did not consider that the additional passengers, for whom no seats were available, would slide backwards on the cabin floor after takeoff. Ultimately, however, the public prosecutor's office was unable to identify any specific persons responsible.