Air crash near Malakasa

The air crash near Malakasa – the crash of a ten-seat LOT Polish Airlines Lockheed Electra passenger aircraft, which occurred on 1 December 1936 near the locality of Malakasa in Greece, about 45 km north of Athens. The aircraft was carrying five passengers on the second leg of a scheduled flight on the Warsaw – Athens route with a stopover in Bucharest. It belonged to a batch of 4 examples purchased by LOT at the beginning of 1936.

During the flight the aircraft encountered fog between Thessaloniki and Athens, which forced it to fly lower over mountainous terrain. At an altitude of approx. 1000 m it came upon a mountain peak and, having struck a tree with its wing, fell to the ground. The circumstances of the crash were investigated by a special state commission.

As a result of the crash, the pilot Józef Bargiel was killed on the spot; he was the winner of the 2nd National Light Aircraft Contest in 1928 and had over 500,000 km of flights in air transport behind him; the radio operator A. Życzewski was injured; the passengers did not suffer any serious injuries. The residents of Malakasa who brought help to the victims were later decorated by the Polish authorities with the Bronze Cross of Merit, and a monument commemorating the pilot Bargiel was erected in Malakasa.

The crash near Malakasa was the first of three crashes of Lockheed L-10 Electra aircraft in LOT Polish Airlines livery. Four weeks later the crash near Susiec occurred, and then on 11 November 1937 near Piaseczno close to Warsaw.