Olczyska Valley air crash

Olczyska Valley air crash – a crash which occurred in the Olczyska Valley in the Tatra Mountains on 11 August 1994, when a Polish-built PZL W-3 Sokół helicopter with the designation SP-SXT, belonging to the Tatra Volunteer Rescue Service and taking part in a rescue operation, crashed.

Course of the crash

The helicopter took off from Zakopane a few minutes before 13:00 towards Hala Gąsienicowa, where there were two female tourists from Sweden with broken legs. On board the helicopter were: Bogusław Arendarczyk – rescuer-pilot, Robert Janik – the then head of TOPR, Janusz Kubica – rescuer (leader of the expedition), Roman Kubin – rescuer, Stanisław Mateja Torbiarz – rescuer, Rafał Mikiewicz – rescuer, Janusz Rybicki – rescuer-pilot and Mieczysław Ziach – rescuer.

At Hala Gąsienicowa the helicopter held a hover at a height of 1 metre above the ground. According to Mieczysław Ziach's account, at a certain moment he heard a crack, as if someone had fired an air rifle. Near the helicopter Janusz Kubica was found, lying on his back with his legs drawn up, with a wound on the back of his head about 5 centimetres in diameter. A decision was immediately made to transport Janusz Kubica to the hospital in Zakopane.

The helicopter flew away from Hala Gąsienicowa with 4 people on board, flying in a typical manner. In a short time it reached a speed of 248 km/h. After passing over Wielka Kopa Królowa it lowered its flight relative to sea level, while still maintaining a fairly large distance from the ground. Level with the Olczyska Valley, the crash occurred in the air. Delamination of a main rotor blade occurred at the trailing edge. As a result of this delamination the rotor blade lost lift, moving downward out of the rotor cone. This led to the leading edge of the damaged blade striking the helicopter's tail boom until it was cut off. The machine, in uncontrolled flight, fell onto the wooded foothills in the vicinity of Wielki Kopieniec. Everyone on board was killed.

TOPR rescuers, employees of the Tatra National Park and firefighters took part in the rescue operation. The helicopter's debris was scattered over an area of about 1000 metres. By 17:00 the bodies of the crash victims had been recovered from the wreck.

Investigation of the causes of the crash

The causes of the accident were investigated by the Main Commission for the Investigation of Aircraft Accidents. According to its findings, the cause of the crash was the failure of one main rotor blade. The commission found that the blade failure occurred as a result of striking the head of Janusz Kubica. In the opinion of independent experts, including Ryszard Witkowski, a test pilot and aeronautical engineer, it is highly improbable that the blade striking the rescuer's head caused the blade failure. According to this hypothesis, the delamination of the blade began long before the accident at Hala Gąsienicowa and Janusz Kubica was its victim.