LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 crashed in the Kabaty Woods nature reserve on the outskirts of Warsaw on May 9, 1987. The aircraft involved was an Ilyushin Il-62M which bore the name, Tadeusz Kościuszko. (Two different Polish Il-62s bore that name; one was Il-62 SP-LAB ( cn 21105 ), the second plane of this type purchased by LOT in 1971, one - which crashed - was an Il-62M purchased in 1984.)
After the crash of SP-LAA "Mikołaj Kopernik" LOT Polis...
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LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 crashed in the Kabaty Woods nature reserve on the outskirts of Warsaw on May 9, 1987. The aircraft involved was an Ilyushin Il-62M which bore the name, Tadeusz Kościuszko. (Two different Polish Il-62s bore that name; one was Il-62 SP-LAB ( cn 21105 ), the second plane of this type purchased by LOT in 1971, one - which crashed - was an Il-62M purchased in 1984.)
After the crash of SP-LAA "Mikołaj Kopernik" LOT Polish Airlines started replacing their Ilyushins Il-62 with their more modernized version - Ilyushin Il-62M. They had newer engines (Soloviev D-30 instead of Kuznetsov NK-8, but both engines shared the same critical point - low pressure turbine and engine shaft design and construction.
According to the Polish investigatory commission, the cause of the crash was the disintegration of an engine shaft due to faulty bearings inside the number 2 engine, which seized, causing extensive heat. This in turn caused the consequent damage to engine number 1 ...
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