06 November 2011

LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767-300 Makes Gear Up Landing

LOT B767-300 Not the Accident Aircraft
Hello All BlkAv8tor Checkin In!!!

On Nov. 1, 2011 a LOT B767 (Flt LO-16) had to make an emergency gear up landing in Warsaw Poland (WAW) after flying from Newark, NJ. (KEWR) The landing was flawless and textbook if one could ever be.

The captain had plenty of time to prepare for the landing after noticing the problem with the center hydraulic system after leaving Newark. 

Many people have wondered why the captain chose to fly all the way to Warsaw with a known problem instead of turning around and returning to Newark. Well there are many more factors that come into play when planning for an air return to the departure airport and this captain I'm sure with some consultation with his company and FAA officials here in the U.S. they all detrmined coming back to Newark would not be a wise move and here is why.

Airport layout must have come into play as well as how busy the airport of choice is normally. Newark, like JFK is very busy day and night and an emergency with a possibility of a gear up landing would cripple the Northeast airport and connecting flight as well. Newark is a major connecting and originating city for the major U.S. airlines and if it goes down or has a runway closed due to a disabled aircraft, that would shock the system here in the U.S. Going on to Warsaw was a good move in the sense that the traffic there is not as heavy but busy none the less. 

LOT B767-300 Belly Landing
Emergency services wise both airports could handle the emergency if it went wrong and there were injuries but Warsaw could deal with a runway out of service for at the most one day better than Newark. That being said Warsaw was the best option and it gave the airport and emergency services time to prepare. With excellent airmanship this accident is compared to the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson for a flawless "planned" ditching which was the first of it's kind in U.S. history.

Captain Tadeusz Wrona
Captain Tadeusz Wrona and First Officer Jerzy Szwarc, an experienced crew with the captain having more than 20 years of experience on the Boeings are in an elite fraternity that all us pilots hope to never join but if we do then we all hope for the same outcome! As updates become available I will post them here.

Bravo gentlemen for a job well done!!!

As always Be Proactive Not Reactive and Enjoy Your Flight!!!

Blkav8tor2003 
 

Below is an excerpt from avherald with some video from youtube of the landing. the full technical report can be read there as well.

LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767-300, performing flight LO-16 from Newark,NJ (USA) (KEWR) to Warsaw (Poland) (WAW) with 220 passengers and 11 crew, was on approach to Warsaw's runway 33 when the crew aborted the approach at 3000 feet reporting an unsafe gear indication for all three gear struts at about 13:10L (12:10Z) and entered a holding to troubleshoot the problem for about 80 minutes.

The airline reported the aircraft was piloted by Captain Tadeusz Wrona and First Officer Jerzy Szwarc, an experienced crew with the captain having more than 20 years of experience on the Boeings. About 30 minutes after departure from Newark the crew reported the failure of the center hydraulic system. It is unclear why the gear could not be lowered, this is being investigated.

05 November 2011

BlkAv8tor Returns to The Blogging World After A Lengthy Hiatus

Hello All Blkav8tor Checking In!!!

Hello all, I am back from a bloggers break since work and family come first! So I think I have a little bit of time here and there to share some of the news events and my knowledge as things take place with the world.

So I figured I would jump in feet first with a few things that happened recently in the aviation world close to home and also a far.


My first story happened in my neck of the woods right here in Phoenix with the death of a US Airways flight attendant. For those of you that may not know what happened click here and I also want to pay my condolences to a fellow flight attendant that I never new or flew with. His friends and family here in Phoenix and throughout the world have commented on a monumental loss to the airline world and aviation community!

His name was Nick Aaronson, I feel a loss for a fellow flier and I would have been honored to have made his acquaintance! Nick enjoy you final flight, you touched so many and you will be missed by all!!!
Nick Aaronson

Here is a brief video of the send off from his fellow employees at US Airways from 
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport!