Air crash near Susiec

The air crash near Susiec (also referred to as the crash near Tomaszów Lubelski, near Rawa Ruska or near Lwów) – the crash of a 10-seat LOT Polish Airlines Lockheed Electra passenger aircraft, which occurred on 28 December 1936 at around 10:45, near the villages of Susiec and Łuszczacz in Tomaszów County. The aircraft belonged to a batch of four examples purchased by LOT at the beginning of 1936. It was piloted by Mieczysław Jonikas and was flying from Lwów to Warsaw.

The aircraft took off on the service from Lwów to Warsaw with a delay of an hour and a half due to bad atmospheric conditions. On the route between Rawa Ruska and Susiec it ran into a snowstorm and an area of icing. The “Killfrost” anti-icing paste used at the time proved ineffective in heavier icing. At 10:29 the radio operator sent a radio message about the controls freezing. The pilot decided to attempt an emergency landing. The aircraft lost stability and at a height of about 10 metres rolled onto its left wing, struck the ground in an inverted position (on its back) and broke into two parts. The fuel ignited as a result of the impact. The circumstances of the crash were investigated by a special state commission.

As a result of the crash, two passengers were killed on the spot: Józef Zimmerman, the 36-year-old owner of the «Autopomoc» firm from Lwów, and Zygmunt Łoś, a 49-year-old doctor of laws, landowner, director of the Oilseed Trading Head Office in Warsaw, husband of Zofia née Rostworowska, and father of the later mathematician Jerzy Łoś. 4 people were injured, including the radio mechanic Józef Fronc, who died the next day in hospital in Tomaszów Lubelski as a result of burns. The injured who survived were: the pilot Mieczysław Jonikas, Eng. Stefan Krzyczkowski, technical director of LOT Polish Airlines, and Stefan Ryniewicz, consul of the Republic of Poland in Riga. Among the survivors who were unharmed was also Dr Tadeusz Piszczkowski, the newly appointed consul of the Republic of Poland in Tel Aviv, later a lecturer at the Polish University in London, author of history books, and collaborator of Radio Free Europe.

The crash near Susiec was one of three crashes of Lockheed L-10 Electra aircraft in LOT Polish Airlines livery. Shortly before, on 1 December 1936, near Malakasa close to Athens, there was the crash of an aircraft piloted by Józef Bargiel. The next crash happened on 11 November 1937 near Piaseczno in the vicinity of Warsaw. 4 people were killed in it.