A pilot delivered a final, haunting message before a doomed flight crashed in Poland. LOT Polish Airlines flight 5055 had been bound for San Francisco via New York when it slammed into the ground shortly after taking off from Warsaw on May 9, 1987.
The 186-seat Ilyushin II-62M was carrying 172 passengers and 11 crew when it went down over the Karbaty Woods outside the Polish capital. Air traffic control instructred the cabin crew to climb to 18,000ft shortly after take off.
The crew applied maximum thrust to cover the distance, but faulty bearings inside one of the jet’s four engines overheated, reaching about 1,000C, and exploded.
A turbine disc on the burning engine separated from a destroyed shaft and exploded, with debris puncturing the fuselage and a second engine as well as cargo hold, where fire rapidly spread.
Flight 5055’s crew initiated a descent to 13,200ft and turned towards Warsaw Chopin Airport, where they believed there would be better emergency equipment.
Passengers were aware of the emergency, with one writing in her copy of the New Testament: “9.05.1987 The aircraft’s damaged… God, what will happen now… Halina Domeracka, R Tagore St, Warsaw”.
The crew tried landing at Warsaw Chopin, but the fire caused all flight controls to fail, with it no longer possible to use the landing gear or dump fuel.
In the final exchange between the crew and ground control at 11.12am, the crew radioed: “Goodnight. Goodbye. We perish”.
During the final seconds, the plane entered into a nosedive and smashed into the ground at 295mph about three miles from the runway.
It is believed when the fire from the cargo hold spread to the passenger cabin, people panicked and surged towards the front of the jet, causing the nosedive.
An investigation said the crash was caused by an engine shaft disintegrating due to faulty roller bearings inside an engine.
Rescue efforts were hampered because emergency vehicles couldn’t get through the trees. All 183 passengers and crew members died.
Poland entered two days of national mourning after the crash, with crew members posthumously receiving military and civilian honours.
A state funeral was held for the crew on May 23, 1987. A cross-shaped monument which bears the names of those who perished in the crash stands at the southern edge of the scar the jet left in the ground.