Air crash near Piaseczno

The air crash near Piaseczno – the crash of a ten-seat LOT Polish Airlines Lockheed Electra passenger aircraft flying from Kraków to Warsaw, which occurred on 11 November 1937 at around 16:43, near the village of Mysiadło close to Piaseczno near Warsaw.

The aircraft belonged to a batch of four examples purchased by LOT at the beginning of 1936. It was piloted by Mieczysław Witkowski, one of the most experienced pilots of passenger aviation in pre-war Poland, called, because of the number of kilometres flown, an “air millionaire”.

Course of events

The aircraft took off from Kraków at 14:20 and was expected in Warsaw before 15:30. Atmospheric conditions over Warsaw were bad – the cloud base was 30 metres and visibility about 400 metres; heavy rain was falling. At that time a Romanian aircraft flying from Lwów arrived over the Warsaw airfield and, because its fuel was running out, was the first to begin landing. Due to the lack of visibility the aircraft had to land blind using radio direction finders. After the Romanian aircraft had landed, the aircraft from Kraków began its landing at 15:45. Because of the worsening visibility, the traffic manager of the Warsaw airfield ordered the landing to be aborted and the aircraft to fly off to Poznań. However, the Poznań airfield reported a sudden deterioration in the weather and no conditions for landing. Meanwhile at the Warsaw airfield the cloud base rose to 40 metres, and the visibility increased to 700 and then 800 metres. At 16:18 pilot Witkowski therefore began a second run towards the direction-finding station. At 16:22 he reported that he was flying at an altitude of 600 metres. Visibility in the vicinity of the airfield had then increased to 2000 metres. At 16:30 the pilot reported that, in accordance with the procedure, he was making a turn at an altitude of 350 metres, and he began descending to 150 metres. At a distance of 15 kilometres from the airfield he was flying at an altitude of 100 metres, reduced speed and began lowering the undercarriage. Pilot Witkowski then indicated to the radio mechanic Zygmunt Bluszcz that the altimeter was not working properly. Then at 16:38 he received an instruction from the airfield to fly at an altitude of 100 metres, to which he replied that he was at 60 metres. For unknown reasons the aircraft then drifted eastwards, which the pilot tried to correct. At 16:43 contact with the aircraft was broken off.

During the landing the passengers were first instructed to stop smoking, then they noticed in the pilot's cockpit the indicator light signalling the approach to landing, and finally the pilot asked the passengers to remain calm. At that moment two strong jolts and a blinding flash occurred.

Approaching the road from Piaseczno to Warsaw, the aircraft suddenly came upon the wooden poles of a high-voltage power line. At a height of 8 metres and a speed of 200 km/h it struck a pole with its left wing, cutting off its top and losing the wingtip. Then it caught the wires with its tail unit, tearing them, causing an electrical discharge and damaging the controls. The aircraft fell onto its right wing, which was smashed. A detached engine flew several dozen metres to the side. The front of the aircraft dug into the ground; the detached fuselage ended up about 50 metres from it. The commission investigating the accident established that pilot Witkowski had managed to shut off the fuel supply to the engines, which prevented an explosion.

Causes of the crash

The investigations of the commission appointed to establish the causes of the crash focused on the difference between the reports of flight altitude given by the aircraft to the control tower and the actual altitude of eight metres at which the wing struck the power-line pole. Both crew members, pilot Witkowski and radio mechanic Bluszcz, testified that in the final phase of the flight both pressure altimeters constantly indicated an altitude of 60 metres. It seemed unlikely, however, that both altimeters had suffered an identical fault at the same time. It was found that the altimeters were in working order. A hypothesis was put forward that the sudden changes of weather during the landing were associated with rapid changes of atmospheric pressure along the route, which caused the pressure altimeters not to indicate the correct altitude. The commission finally concluded that the pilot had probably not set the altimeters to the correct pressure. Moreover, at the crash site the cloud base was not 40 metres as at the airfield, but only 25 metres. In the difficult atmospheric conditions pilot Witkowski became nervous and, not relying on the direction-finding data, sought to gain visual contact with the ground, as a result of which he found himself “below the altitude required by the regulations specifying the conditions for landing on ZZ” (blind), and a collision occurred with power-line poles 6 metres high, which were, however, located on the landing path on raised ground.

According to other sources, the cause of this crash was different – the author of the book was at the radio direction finder at Okęcie airfield. Capt. Witkowski, in accordance with the “ZZ” landing procedure, received the signal “we hear your engines”, which meant the aircraft was in the immediate vicinity of the runway. In accordance with the procedure, the captain lowered the flight level according to the altimeter to 80 metres. Meanwhile …