The skill of the captain was heralded as sensational as he struggled to keep the nose up. “All safety procedures worked perfectly fine and, thanks to this, nobody was injured,” said Leszek Chorzewski, spokesman for the Polish air carrier LOT.
LOT Flight # 16 could not extend its landing gears at 3,000 feet while approaching runway 33 and Wrona requested clearance for an emergency landing. Visual verification by fighter aircraft showed none of the gear struts (three) were down.
The pilot knew four hours out that he would not have hydraulics for landing. Many on board had thought the problem had been corrected because Captain Wrona handled the descent and landing so smoothly that the plane had landed on its wheels.
There was no visible fire but rescue personnel dosed the plane with water and foam as a precautionary measure. Passengers were evacuated from the plane, which had circled and dumped fuel before the wheels up landing. Later it was determined that the plane had experienced a central hydraulic system failure. “They circled the 767 above the airport for about one hour before descending without lowering the wheels,” said Przemyslaw Przybylski, a spokesman for the Warsaw Chopin airport.
Live Polish television footage showed the plane landing on its belly. The runway had been covered with flame retardant foam and some sparks were seen as the aircraft met the runway. Formerly called Warsaw-Okecie International Airport, it remained closed for all other flights until Thursday morning.
He had said a small fire occurred and throughout the ordeal he remained confident he could keep everyone safe.
“I was praying for the pilot not to lose control because we started to make circles over the airport. It was terrible,” passenger Teresa Kowalik told the assembled reporters at the airport. “We owe everything to the pilot. He really did a great job.”
LOT airlines president, Marcin Pirog, told reporters that Captain Tadeusz Wrona and co-pilot Jerzy Szwartz carried out a “perfect emergency landing,” which prevented anyone from being injured. There were 11 crew total and 220 passengers.
“It is the first time a LOT plane had to land without the landing gear out,” Pirog said, adding that such landings do not always end well. Flights which had been scheduled to land in Warsaw had been diverted to Lodz, Gdansk and Krakow.
“When I stopped on the runway, I still was not sure that everyone was safe because smoke and some burning from friction appeared on the ground,”’ Wrona told news media at a press conference Wednesday morning. “I felt huge relief when the lead flight attendant reported that the plane was safely evacuated. They did a wonderful job.”
Pirog said that Wrona was one of LOT’s most experienced pilots and had been flying Boeings for 20 years. He is also skilled in flying gliders, and it was suggested that may have helped him make such a successful emergency landing.
Jacek Urbanski contributed.