2 Videos: LOT 767 Lands Wheels Up In Warsaw Poland 11-1-11
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 05:19PM 
Video screenshot of the LOT Airlines 767 landing gear up in Warsaw, Poland on 11-1-11
Here are two different videos of the LOT Airlines wheels up Boeing 767 landing in Warsaw Poland yesterday 11-1-11. Fortunately it was about as uneventful as a wheels up landing with an approximately 250,000 pound airplane can get. The video above gives a fabulous view of the approach and touchdown, and it gives a couple of great visual clues as to why this was such a successful emergency landing.
For one, it appears that the wind was either very light and/or nearly right down the runway. This would surely help in keeping all the energy of the airplane headed in a nice straight line down the runway. Secondly, if you watch the elevator and the rate of sink leading up to the touchdown, you'll see that the pilot had the situation very well under control. You don't see a lot of elevator movement, and the rate of sink is very low... this would indicate a very calm and collected pilot who had the approach pretty much nailed. There's just a little flare to further reduce the rate of sink and then the aft end of the fuselage makes gentle contact with the runway. I believe these two factors, along with what appears to be excellent preparation in advance of the landing, kept the airframe damage to a minimum and greatly reduced the risks of loss of control (and most likely serious damage) after touchdown.
In an era when we sometimes struggle to feel like people are as professional as they need to be, and all too often we see a string of errors leading to catastrophes, it sure is great to see such an excellent example of handling a difficult situation under pressure. Bravo to this LOT crew for their outstanding performance!
Reader Comments (3)
Terrific job of piloting. He deserves much credit for that. But what happened to the Alternate Gear Extension? I believe it's electric on the 767.
Woah. That was close. How many passengers were on that plane?
airpigz lurker- not sure what the specifics are about why the gear wasn't able to be extended (or if it was just one that wasn't extending) so I figure it best not to speculate. I haven't had the time to see if there's a preliminary idea on the cause.
Mike- 220 pax, 11 crew