mathematics

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 rather than just read about it. In short: LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 was a scheduled flight from Newark, United States, to Warsaw, Poland. On 1 November, 2011, the Boeing 767 operating the route made a successful gear-up emergency landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport, after its landing gear failed to extend.

Key takeaways

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 was a scheduled flight from Newark, United States, to Warsaw, Poland. On 1 November, 2011, the Boeing 767 operating the route made a successful gear-up emergency landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport, after its landing gear failed to extend. All 231 people on board (220 passengers and 11 crew) survived without serious injuries. A leak in one of the aircraft's hydraulic systems occurred shortly after takeoff, resulting in the loss of all of the hydraulic fluid supplying the primary landing gear system.

Aircraft The aircraft involved was a Boeing 767-35DER, registered as SP-LPC, named Poznań, serial number 28656. It was built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 1997 and in its 14 years of service, it had logged 85429 airframe hours in 8002 takeoff and landing cycles. The aircraft was powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2B6 engines.

Incident LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 was scheduled to arrive at Warsaw Chopin Airport from Newark Liberty International Airport on 1 November 2011 at 13:35 CET with 220 passengers and 11 crew on board. Within 30 minutes of departing from Newark, the crew received a warning that the center hydraulic system had malfunctioned. The decision was made to continue to Warsaw in order to use up the heavy load of fuel needed for the transatlantic flight. The aircraft proceeded to approach as normal, but aborted when the landing gear failed to deploy. The crew informed Warsaw air traffic control (ATC) that they were unable to lower the landing gear due to a hydraulic system failure. The captain decided to circle the airport for over an hour, to consume excess fuel and to allow time for ground emergency services to prepare for the landing, including covering the runway with a fire suppression foam. Visual observation by two Polish Air Force F-16 fighter jets verified that none of the landing gear were down; attempts to lower the landing gear by alternative means failed.

Preparation for landing The airport was evacuated for the arrival of the aircraft, and roads around the airport were closed to accommodate emergency services. Other flights which were due into Warsaw were diverted or returned to their point of departure. At 14:40 CET the crew made a successful gear-up landing on Runway 33, with no injuries to anyone. The aircraft however, sustained substantial damage, resulting in a hull loss. All of those on board were evacuated within 90 seconds. The airport runways remained closed to traffic until 16:00 CET, 3 November 2011, to enable removal of crash debris and then a final inspection of runways and aprons. Shortly after the evacuation, a team from the Polish State Commission on Aircraft Accidents Investigation (SCAAI) discovered that the C829 circuit breaker, which protects a number of systems including the alternate landing gear extension system, was "popped", or opened, interrupting the circuit. The C4248 breaker for the alternate landing gear system remained closed. After the plane was lifted off the runway, the C829 circuit breaker was closed, and the landing gear was extended using the alternate system. The plane was then towed to the LOT maintenance hangar for further investigation.

Flight crew

Flight 16 was captained by Tadeusz Wrona, a 57-year-old veteran pilot with twenty years of Boeing 767 experience. Both the captain and the 51-year-old first officer, Jerzy Szwarc, held Airline Transport Pilot Licenses with a combined total of over 25,000 flying hours, including 15,000 hours on the Boeing 767. This accident gave rise to a new saying (Wrona in Polish means crow): "Leć jak Orzeł, ląduj jak Wrona" (Fly like an eagle, land like a crow).

Investigation The preliminary report by the SCAAI found that a hydraulic leak occurred shortly after takeoff, after the landing gear and flaps were retracted. The leak was caused by excessive bending of a flexible hose in the center hydraulic system, resulting in the loss of all fluid in that system. The drop in pressure was indicated by the EICAS and recorded by the flight data recorder. Later investigation indicated a popped circuit breaker just to the right of the F/O at floor level would have enabled the electric motor for releasing the undercarriage. The breaker was reset after landing and the undercarriage extended normally. The final report of the accident was released in 2017. The causes of the accident were the center hydraulic hose leak, the C829 circuit breaker popping, and the flight crew's failure to detect the C829 breaker during the approach, which could have allowed them to lower the landing gear. Contributing factors were the lack of safeguards to prevent accidental opening of circuit breakers, the C829 circuit breaker being in a low position where the flight crew would have difficulty noticing its condition, LOT's operations center inadequate procedures, and LOT's failure to incorporate a Boeing service bulletin on the prevention of excessive bending in the hydraulic system hose.

Aftermath Polish President Bronisław Komorowski praised and thanked the crew for the successful landing. The Boeing 767, registration SP-LPC, was extensively damaged and LOT deemed the aircraft a hull loss. The accident represents the 14th hull loss of a Boeing 767. In November 2013, two years after the incident, the aircraft was scrapped.

Notes

References

External links

State Commission on Aircraft Accidents Investigation: "Lata 2010–2012" (in Polish) Drugie Oświadczenie Tymczasowe Państwowej Komisji Badania Wypadków Lotniczych dotyczące badania wypadku lotniczego nr 1400/2011 – 31 October 2013 (in Polish) (Archive) Second Interim Statement of the State Commission on Aircraft Accident Investigation on investigation into air accident No 1400/2011 – 31 October 2013 (Archive) Interim Statement Interim Statement (in Polish) Preliminary Report (in English) (Archive) Preliminary Report (in Polish) (Archive) Final report (in English) (Alternate) Final report (in Polish) – the Polish version is the report of record Accident: LOT B763 at Warsaw on Nov 1st 2011, forced gear up landing Aviation Safety Net database entry for Aircraft accident Boeing 767-35DER SP-LPC Warszawa-Frédéric Chopin Airport (WAW) (contains copy of final accident report) Analyst of the incident and review of the Polish State Commission on Aircraft Accident Final Report by a commercial aircraft pilot and training captain on YouTube

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16

In research: LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2011 in Poland, Airliner accidents and incidents caused by mechanical failure, Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 in simple terms?

Why does LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16.