Zygmunt Pawlaczyk

Zygmunt Pawlaczyk (born 19 April 1928 in Skalmierzyce; died 9 May 1987 in Warsaw) was a military pilot since 1951, and a pilot for LOT Polish Airlines since 1955; a victim of the Kabaty Woods airline disaster.

He was the pilot and captain of the Il-62M SP-LBG Tadeusz Kościuszko passenger aircraft of LOT Polish Airlines on flight LO 5055, during which – while attempting an emergency landing – the greatest crash in the history of Polish aviation occurred.

Biography Youth Until 1949, Zygmunt Pawlaczyk lived with his parents in Jarocin. During the occupation, he was forcibly conscripted to work at the Thönet furniture factory in 1942. After the war, he took part in an operation to remove weapons from German military transports together with his friends. In later years, he continued to work at the furniture factory, and in the evenings he completed elementary school and a three-year vocational school in Jarocin. In his free time, he organized lectures, informal talks, sports competitions, and amateur performances with his friends.

Military service and pilot career In 1949, he was drafted into military service in Wrocław and subsequently assigned to a driving school in Warsaw, which he graduated from in 1951, ranking first in his class. He was then assigned to Jelenia Góra, where he served as a driver at a unit headquarters. From there, he was sent to a military pilot training course, which he completed with a very good grade. In 1955, he began working for LOT Polish Airlines, and after completing another course, he became a civilian pilot. He participated in a forest spraying operation in Bulgaria in 1956, for which he received the Udarnik badge. He covered over 10 million km in the air.

Air disaster

Captain Pawlaczyk was the commander of the crew of the Tadeusz Kościuszko aircraft, which crashed during the disaster in the Kabaty Woods on 9 May 1987. and the decisions made by Zygmunt Pawlaczyk under extremely difficult conditions were correct and had no causal connection to the crash.

He was survived by his wife Alina and son Jacek, who worked for LOT Polish Airlines. (plot 251-6-5).

Awards and decorations Source: Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (posthumously) First Class Badge with Three Diamonds for Distinguished Service to LOT Polish Airlines (posthumously)