LOT Polish Airlines safety record
No fatal accident for anyone on board a LOT flight since 1988 — nearly four decades. On airlines like LOT, the chance of being in a fatal accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight.
No fatal accident for anyone on board since 1988
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Nearly four decades without a fatal accident on board
LOT's last fatal accident was on 2 November 1988. Flight 703, an Antonov An-24 from Warsaw, lost both engines shortly before landing at Rzeszów, and the crew put it down in a field near Białobrzegi. One passenger, trapped by seats that had broken loose, lost her life; the other 28 people on board got out.
Its two worst accidents both happened near Warsaw, on Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-62s. In March 1980 flight 007 from New York crashed short of the runway after an engine turbine disc broke from metal fatigue and the debris cut the tail controls; all 87 on board lost their lives. In May 1987 flight 5055 to New York lost an engine shaft, and the debris started a fire in the cargo hold and damaged the controls; the crew turned back for Warsaw, but all 183 on board lost their lives.
From 1989 LOT replaced its Soviet-built fleet with Western jets, and today it flies Boeing and Embraer aircraft. It is registered with IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA). EuroLOT, the regional subsidiary that flew many LOT routes until 2015, never had a fatal accident.
LOT was formed by the Polish state at the end of 1928 from two earlier airlines, Aerolot and Aero, whose records are not counted. Its fatal accidents before 1970 — at least 12, the last near Zawoja in 1969 — are not on the line below, which starts in 1970. The 2010 crash at Smolensk was a Polish Air Force aircraft, not a LOT flight.
Every fatal accident, on one line
Solid dots are its own flights; hollow ones were flown by a partner or subsidiary under its name; grey rings are hijackings and attacks. Fatalities that investigators don't class as accidents (such as trespassers) aren't shown.
Each of these was investigated, and the lessons are built into how every airline flies today. The full list is here if you want it.
Read the full list (5)
- Nov 1988 LO703 · Antonov An-24 · Białobrzegi, near RzeszówBoth engines stopped shortly before landing at Rzeszów, reportedly because engine anti-icing had not been switched on, and the crew landed in a field with the gear up. One passenger, trapped by seats that broke loose, lost her life; the other 28 on board got out.
- May 1987 LO5055 · Ilyushin Il-62M · Kabaty forest, WarsawOutbound to New York, an engine shaft failed; the debris started a fire in the cargo hold and damaged the controls. The crew turned back for Warsaw but lost control on the approach, and all 183 on board lost their lives — the worst accident in Polish aviation.
- Mar 1981 LO691 · Antonov An-24 · near SłupskDescended below the minimum approach height in low cloud, struck the ground and trees short of the runway and caught fire; one passenger was fatally injured and the others on board got out.
- Mar 1980 LO007 · Ilyushin Il-62 · WarsawArriving from New York, the crew began a go-around over a landing-gear warning; an engine turbine disc broke from metal fatigue and the debris cut the tail controls. All 87 on board lost their lives, among them members of the US amateur boxing team.
- May 1977 LO6883 · Antonov An-12BP · near BeirutA cargo flight from Warsaw via Varna flew into high ground on approach to Beirut; its 9 crew lost their lives. Exchanges with Beirut controllers had been hampered by language difficulties.
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LOT safety questions
How safe is LOT Polish Airlines?
No fatal accident for anyone on board a LOT flight since 1988 — nearly four decades. On airlines like LOT, the chance of being in a fatal accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight. Every fact on this page is sourced — the list is at the bottom.
What is LOT's safety rating?
FlyBud doesn't invent a score. What matters is the record, which you can check: no one on board a LOT flight has lost their life in an accident since 1988. It is registered with IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA), which registered airlines must renew every two years.
Has LOT ever crashed?
Yes. Its last fatal accident was flight 703 in 1988, when an An-24 made an emergency landing in a field near Rzeszów and one passenger lost her life. Its worst were flight 007 in 1980 and flight 5055 in 1987, both Ilyushin Il-62s near Warsaw. In 2011 LOT flight 16, a Boeing 767 from Newark, landed at Warsaw with its landing gear up after a hydraulic failure; no one on board was hurt.
Where these facts come from
Every fact on this page is from official accident reports, the airline's own filings or the published accident record.
- Aviation Safety Network An-12 near Beirut, 1977
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 007, 1980
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 691, 1981
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 5055, 1987
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 703, 1988
- Wikipedia (Polish) Flight 703 cause and occupants
- Wikipedia (Polish) accident list, pre-1970 record
- Wikipedia founding, fleet
- inwestycje.pl passengers 2025
- IATA IOSA registration (membership checked 4 Oct 2026)
- MIT News / Journal of Air Transport Management (Barnett, 2024) risk per flight 2018–2022
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