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.

9 Passengers Fall Sick Due To Foul Odor On US Airways Flight To Jamaica

Flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Jamaica forced to return to gate

9 people on board a US Airways flight from Charlotte, North Carolina (KCLT) to Montego Bay Jamaica were taken to the hospital Tuesday after they became sick due to a "foul odor" on the plane, officials said.
The passengers were complaining of symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic fumes, the NBC-affiliated WCNC news channel reported, citing medics. One of the patients was a US Airways employee.

Flight 985 was scheduled to depart Charlotte Douglas Airport (KCLT) at 9:35 a.m. and was due to go to Montego Bay (MBJ/MKJS) on the Caribbean island.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that there were reports of a bad smell shortly after the Boeing 767 left the gate.

The plane pushed back from the gate and taxied out on to the ramp when several passengers on board complained of a foul-smelling odor. The flight attendants notified the pilots of the problem and the aircraft returned to the gate and those persons were checked out by medics.

The plane did not get airborne so declaring an in-flight emergency never happened. The pilots checked-in with ground control to taxi and then advised them of the problem and emergency services on the field were notified. Mecklenburg County ambulance spokesman Jeff Keith said nine people were taken to Carolinas Medical Center, but added their conditions did not appear to be life-threatening.

This is not the first time this has happened with US Airways. In January, 15 people were treated after complaining of sickness associated with a foul odor on a US Airways Boeing 767 flight, WCNC reported. It's possible that this was the same exact airplane. I haven't been able to confirm this as of yet but reports indicate that maintenance logs obtained by local WCNC showed that plane experienced a similar problem on Dec. 28 and Dec. 30 on flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

US Airways' Service Difficulty Report filed with the Federal Aviation Administration says "a very strong odor smelling like wet socks and/or dirty feet circulated through the passenger cabin and flight deck" during Flight 1568 on December 28 from Charlotte to San Juan, Puerto Rico and another flight on Dec 30 On Jan. 5, when it was cleared for flight everything seemed to operationg normally then it happened again.

After the January 16th incident, US Airways took its 767 out of service for maintenance work. When it returned to the air on January 21, US Airways reported to the FAA "a scorched odor...like a gym or locker room" filled the aircraft. Maintenance found no problems with the plane and it was cleared for flight.

On Jan. 16, Flight 1041 from St. Thomas was the next incident flight. The crew of Flight 1041 fell victim to a "fume event," the third time in three weeks that the aircraft, a Boeing 767-2B7, tail number 251, suffered contamination of its cabin air. The flight was going from from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands (STT/TIST) where it was met by ambulances when it landed in Charlotte (KCLT) and passengers and crew members complained of headaches and nausea they attributed to a suspicious smell.

Crew members reported trouble breathing, itchy eyes and stomach cramps. Two days later on the same route a "foul odor" entered the cabin. "Passengers and flight attendants were feeling faint and nauseous," according to the Service Difficulty Report.
US Airways tells CNN hydraulic fluid was released into the ventilation system on the two December flights. That fluid – Skydrol – is a known irritant to the respiratory tract.

Eight passengers were treated on the scene. Seven crew members were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released. One flight attendant has since returned to the air, while the other crew members remain out on disability.