Air crash in Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą

The air crash in Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą – an air accident in Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą, which occurred on 13 July 1982 at around 15:39. 4 soldiers were killed in it (2 Polish pilots and 2 students from Libya).

Course of the event

On 13 July 1982, in the afternoon hours, the 4th squadron of the 47th Training Helicopter Regiment (JW 1540) was practising training flights on Mi-2 helicopters. At 15:32 a crew consisting of A. M. Baroud and Lt. Pilot Jan Kubica took off for another circuit flight. At that time, on another helicopter, Libyan military students were practising hovering with Lt. Pilot Włodzimierz Podbielski. When the first helicopter, after the fourth turn, was approaching to land, the crew of the second helicopter, consisting of Saleh M. Salem and Lt. Pilot Podbielski, after receiving permission from the flight director, began taking off from the hover square in order to perform a training circuit flight. Because the landing place of the first helicopter was practically in a straight line with the flight path of the departing helicopter, they found themselves on a collision course in the vertical plane. When the aircraft came close to each other, they entered the range of each other's main rotor blades and began to destroy each other. The crash took place at a height of about 40–50 metres, at a distance of 250 metres in front of the take-off and landing line. The landing helicopter caught fire while still in the air, and a moment later both machines fell to the ground close to each other. Nobody survived the crash.

Changes after the crash

In addition to preventive measures consisting of discussing the cause of the crash with the command staff of the Armed Forces aviation, the flying personnel of the regiment, and the persons providing flight support, the following steps were taken in practical terms:

The organisation of flight training on helicopters was changed.

Changes were made to the regulations in the Flight Operations Regulations.

An additional functionary was introduced, i.e. an assistant flight director.

After the corrective measures had been taken, until the unit was disbanded in 2000, no pilot was killed in the airfield area. As a tribute to the fallen, flights were never again planned on 13 July.