1928 -- > The Government Consolidation of all private airlines
The Department of Civil Air Transportation in the Ministry of Transportation develops a programme of fundamental changes to take place in the Polish air transportation: closing of all private air transportation companies. One state self-governed enterprise is established on 29 December 1928 called Linje Lotnicze LOT Sp. z o. o. [LOT Airlines Ltd.].
1929 -- > January 1st is the first official day of operation.
The first aircraft operated by LOT were the Junkers F.13
The first international service began with the above aircraft to Vienna on August 2nd 1929, within the next year they were accepted into the IATA which made in possible to expand international service to Berlin, Bucharest, Helsinki, Rome, Beirut and Athens.
By 1938 the LOT fleet had expanded to include the Douglas DC-2, L-14H Super Electra & the Lockheed L-10A Electra
and by the time service was suspended for the second World War LOT had flown close to 220,000 people.
LOT Service was restored on the 10th of March 1945, the aircraft used after the restart included several dozen Lisunov Li-2's which were a Russian re-engineered version of the DC-3
By this time, international service also grew to include Paris, Stockholm and Prague. When the Stalin period came to an end, from around 1960 up until the time Lech Wa³êsa (a union worker that later became President of Poland) battled for human rights and helped topple the communist government out of Poland the LOT fleet consisted of strictly Russian equipment which was made up of the:
The Ilyushin Il-62's which came in 1973 and allowed LOT to begin long range & transatlantic flights to Montreal, New York & Toronto. (Also the largest turbine powered aircraft that has direct cable links to the controls. Must have taken some muscle!!!) This was also the first airplane I ever flew on...
The Current Livery that we see with LOT now was adapted in 1977 and it still looks great!!! The Crane symbol has been there since the very beginning in 1929.
Current:
After Communism fell LOT began their transition to Western aircraft beginning with the 767-200 of which the 200 & 300 ER versions still serves as the flagships of the fleet until its replacement comes along with the 787-8 & 9. The 787-8 is scheduled to enter service in October of 2008. One of the first airlines that will receive a 787!!!
Todays current fleet is comprised of the 767-200&300ER
In 2005 LOT created an LCC called Centralwings based from £ódŸ, Poland which currently consists of the 737-300 & 400 and operates with Lufthansa's subsidiary Germanwings.
Poland has long been known for producing some of the best pilots in the world. The World Gliding championships, Polish champions have included since 1937, in 1958 Adam Witek, 1963 Edward Makula, 1965 Jan Wroblewski, 1972 Jan Wroblewski, 1991 J. Centka, 1993 J. Centka, 2003 Sebastian Kawa, 2004 Sebastian Kawa and 2006 Sebastian Kawa. http://www.ssa.org/USTeam/ust_champs.htm
Currently, working for LOT 10 Pilots on the national team Tomasz Rubaj, Janusz Centka, Wac³aw Wieczorek, Andrzej Osowski, Jerzy Makula, Dariusz Zaw³ocki, Witold Filus, Krzysztof Wieczorek, Stanis³aw Wujczak, Jacek Dankowski all of which are award or multiple award winning gliding champions. http://www.lot.com/Portal/EN/aspx/Content_Our_pilots.aspx
Incidents & Accidents:
LOT has 2 Fatal incidents on file in their long history, 1987 When the lost a II-62 with all 187 souls on board:
#1
At 10:18 flight LO5055 took off from Warsaw runway 33 for a flight to New York-JFK. The aircraft headed for the GRU VOR, which it passed at FL265, climbing to FL310. Two minutes later (at 10:41) the no. 2 engine Low Pressure turbine shaft broke loose, followed by the failure of the turbine disc. Debris punctured the aft fuselage, causing a fire in the cargo hold. The elevator control system was severed and the no. 1 engine had to be shut down. The flight crew immediately started an emergency descent to 4000m. After shutting down both no. 1 and no. 2 engine the crew mistakenly thought the fire was extinguished. They had decided to land at Modlin airport, but still unaware of the fire, changed to Warsaw-Okecie runway 33 because of better rescue equipment there. The flight started a left turn for runway 33 at 11:09 at an altitude of 1450m and an airspeed of 480km/h. The crew lost control during the turn and the Il-62 crashed into a forest, 6 km from the runway at an airspeed of 465km/h and an 11deg. left bank, 12deg. nose-down.
I Have flown LOT from YYZ to WAW 23 times and everytime i had a great experience! The Flight Crew are always there to say goodbye at the end of the flight, the flight attendents are always friendly and they are over all a Great Airline...
I hope you all enjoyed this brief insight into my favorite airline!
747fan From United States of America, joined Jun 2007, 1146 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 2857 times:
Nice! I especially love all of your photos; you apparently put a good deal of time into this!
Kubus From Poland, joined Dec 2005, 162 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 2817 times:
LOT had 11 Fatal accidents, and whole bunch of hijacking attempts. LOT's record right now is 19 years and counting without a single fatal accident.
The last one was an AN-24 in 1988 that had an engine failure and was forced to land in a field near RZE.
I still remember the 1987 crash of the IL-62. I lived at a time about 2 km from the crash site in Las Kabacki. I heard the crash and smelled it for months after. I remember years after the crash I still found pieces of the wreckege.
OA260 From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 23084 posts, RR: 60 Reply 6, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 2610 times:
Quoting BlueSkys (Thread starter): And I LOVE the timeless Livery, I hope they Never change it.
I agree it is a fantastic livery. LOT is one of my favourite airlines and I have flown quite a few times on their AC. Mostly DUB -WAW and WAW-ATH also LCA - WAW routes. I love the E170's . I cant wait to fly on the 787's when they get them. In 5 weeks I will fly for the last time on the DUB to WAW route on the E170. Sadly after this summer LOT will finish flights from Dublin so I want to make one last trip. I will miss them here in Ireland. When they first started flights from Dublin I was on one of the first flights with the then new E Jets. It was also my first flight on LOT. In future I will have to go via UK or Germany to connect to them.
I wish them all the best for a successful future.
PS. Just one question. I read that in around 1980/81 LOT closed down for a while. What was the cause of this???
[Edited 2007-07-05 22:48:54]
OLYMPIC AIR - ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΗ "Η ΕΛΛΑΔΑ ΨΗΛΑ" "GREECE FLYING HIGH"
KrisYYZ From Canada, joined Nov 2004, 1463 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 2515 times:
I would say that LOT's safety record is nothing to brag about, especially when compared to other Eastern european airlines like MA. Overall, LOT is a great airline, it is known for great service provided by friendly crews. Can't wait to see LOT's B787s at YYZ.
FXMD11 From Thailand, joined Aug 2004, 184 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 2492 times:
Years ago, they used to come with their 767-35D to BKK.Last time I must have seen them was around 1999.A couple of
CEE Airlines served BKK for quite some time ie. LOT, Balkan, Malev, Tarom and Interflug. Well, MA is back and may be one day LO will return too.
Kubus From Poland, joined Dec 2005, 162 posts, RR: 2 Reply 9, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2430 times:
Quoting BlueSkys (Reply 3): Do you know if there is any online records detailing these accidents?
Same site as your link has a good database, search by airline to get all the accidents/incidents.
KrisYYZ
Malev had 10 Fatal incidents, if you count the maintenance fire that killed 4 mechanics, and Li-2 flying for Maszovlet in 1949 that crashed into mountain. However they are going on 30 years without a fatal during commercial flight.
CSA had 19 Fatal accidents, mostly in 50 and 60's, also going on 30 years without a new one.
Balkan Bulgarian had 9 and 29 since the last one
Tarom had 13 and 12 years since the last one
If you factor the size of each airline and pax numbers, LOT is on top, so the safety record is something they can brag about. On the other hand Lufthansa had 11 Fatal accidents too, and look at their size.
KrisYYZ From Canada, joined Nov 2004, 1463 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 2391 times:
Quoting Kubus (Reply 9): Malev had 10 Fatal incidents, if you count the maintenance fire that killed 4 mechanics, and Li-2 flying for Maszovlet in 1949 that crashed into mountain. However they are going on 30 years without a fatal during commercial flight.
One thing is very clear, the fact that these eastern european airlines flew Russian aircraft played a vast role in the number of accidents. Has LO, MA or OK had a major accident in a Boeing, Airbus or E-jet? No. So it doesn't matter how "good" or talented the pilots were, the major factor in most of the above-mentioned incidents was the aircraft type.
While I still maintain that LOT is a very good airline, but it's in no way significantly better or worse than OK or MA.
Mke717spotter From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 2119 posts, RR: 6 Reply 11, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 2355 times:
Good post. I live in MKE and whenever we go to visit our relatives in Poland we always fly ORD-WAW-POZ on LO. Next summer i'll be headin on over there again and while the 787s are just around the corner, I'm looking forward to flying on one of their 767s one last time.
Will you watch the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions on Sunday? Only if coach Eric Mangini resigned after a loss.
Warszawa From United States of America, joined Nov 2003, 726 posts, RR: 8 Reply 12, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 2329 times:
My mother was born/raised in Poland and I have about 60% of my family over there (Rzeszow to be exact). She actually immigrated to the USA in the late 70's via an IL-62 WAW-JFK. She actually told me it was a scary flight, she sat next to the engines and it was extremely loud. If I remember correctly her mothers (meaning my great grandmoters) friend was onboard the AN-24 flight that crashed also.
Nonetheless, my mother just came back from Poland in April. LOT was somewhat expensive, so she flew FNT-ORD-BRU on American, then BRU-WAW-RZE on LOT (So ERJ-140 / 767-300 / ERJ-170 / ATR-72). The return was RZE-WAW via LOT (ATR-72), WAW-FRA Lufthansa (737-300), FRA-ORD-FNT via American (767-300 / ERJ-145).
I have yet to fly on LOT and my mother hasnt flown on them for a while just because lately they have been more expensive. She likes the airline, but dislikes flying them through ORD because of some hassles over there (something she mentioned about customs was a pain). For whatever reason she said the AA flight from FRA was a breeze with customs at ORD, while the LOT flights never are.
What was also interesting was she mentioned when she was in WAW waiting for the Lufthansa flight to FRA on the return sector, she noticed SP-LPB 'Gdansk' preparing for the flight to ORD. If she was flying LOT that would have been the flight she was flying on. When she flew RZE-WAW there was a Polish couple sitting near her and they asked her if she was going to ORD (in Polish of course - my mother speaks fluent Polish). She said yes, and they mentioned 'Oh great maybe we will sit together!). Then my mother said 'No no i'm going to ORD via FRA on American Airlines' and they commented something about flying all over the place and she should fly LOT next time, haha.
So at WAW, mother was waiting for the Lufthansa 737-300 flight, while SP-LPB was preparing for ORD. She departed to FRA while SP-LPB was still at the gate in WAW. Her AA flight FRA-ORD was on time and arrived in ORD at some 4:30pm. Guess what they parked next to...SP-LPB, haha! When she was in customs she actually recognized some people that were on the RZE-WAW flight.
Pretty neat that she flew WAW-FRA Lufthansa, FRA-ORD on American, while most of the people on the RZE-WAW flight were flying to ORD via LOT...well, SP-LPB arrived in ORD earlier than her FRA flight, and ironically, they parked next to SP-LPB at T5 in ORD.
Flying a plane is no diff. from riding a bicycle. Its just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes. -'Airplane'
Cornish From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2005, 8187 posts, RR: 58 Reply 15, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2137 times:
Well LOT as an airline is fine. However the biggest problem with it is that it has to use WAW as its main hub. Not the most pleasurable airport to use during peak hours
Just when I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel, it was some B*****d with a torch bringing me more work
SlovakFlight From Sweden, joined Nov 2006, 52 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2079 times:
When it comes to WAW, it is a shame that LOT have to use that airport. I hope the situation will get better with the new International terminal which is under construction. IIRC WAW does currently not even have a full-service restaurant (only a crowded buffet where you have to wait in line, tray in hand, to order your meal) which is a fiasco considering the size of the airport.
Mind you, when you fly LOT to or from WAW you at least avoid the Etiuda LCC Terminal. The Etiuda Terminal does not deserve to be called an Airport Terminal. It is more like an under-dimensioned bus station; IMHO it is a scam to call it an Airport Terminal. My advice is fly LOT, then you'll at least avoid the Etiuda Terminal.
My last LOT flight was one week ago and I already look forward to the next one.
Lindy Field From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 3052 posts, RR: 17 Reply 18, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 2050 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW HEAD DATABASE EDITOR
Not to be critical but you missed a few of LOT's historic fleet...
BlueSkys From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 19, posted (4 years 10 months 3 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 1881 times:
Quoting Lindy Field (Reply 18): Not to be critical but you missed a few of LOT's historic fleet...
Good Eye! I knew about the ATR's i remember seeing them in WAW several times, must have slipped my mind.
For a lease like the DC-10, were those LOT pilots or were they provided by the Leasing Company? (that one i have never seen)
I Remember flying on a leased 767 that had Turquoise colours with the livery, this was probably 10 years ago. That was one old and used airplane. I remember talking to the pilots and they told me it was leased just for the season and they couldint wait to stop flying it. It was loud as heck, everything rattled and it looked to the untrainted eye like a very abused airplane.
Once again it was on the YYZ-WAW route.
Can anyone find the picture, does not seem to be on A.net.
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