Post by Nictoshek on Jan 27, 2010 14:02:01 GMT -7
The wreckage of a plane crash in which six people died Friday in West Virginia. (Associated Press / Randy Snyder)
Niles pilot blamed in American Polish Aero-Club plane crash
NTSB says he made numerous errors in crash that killed 6 in West Virginia last year
By MARY WISNIEWSKI Transportation Reporter
January 26, 2010
A small, private plane carrying members of a Chicago area Polish-American aviation club was improperly balanced and overloaded when it crashed in West Virginia last year, killing all six aboard, a National Transportation Safety Board investigation has concluded.
“He got himself into a snowstorm, didn’t file a flight plan, got into a squall and didn’t know up from down,” Albert Durkin, a lawyer representing the estate of two of the crash victims, said today of the report’s findings.
The NTSB said the plane weighed about 4,902 pounds at takeoff — about 332 pounds over the manufacturer’s limit of 4,570 pounds.
The plane’s center of gravity also was too far toward its rear, according to the report, which termed proper weight and balance “vital.”
Dobrzanski was responsible for loading the plane properly, the NTSB said.
Dobrzanski died of multiple injuries but was not intoxicated and tested negative for carbon monoxide and cyanide
The crash, whose victims included Dobrzanski and three other members of the American Polish Aero-Club, sent shockwaves throughout Chicago’s Polish-American community and drew the attention of Poles around the world.
Durkin represents the estates of Stanley Niemiec and his daughter Monika Niemiec of Harwood Heights, who died in the crash.
The suit has been resolved for “nominal” insurance against Dobrzanski but is pending against the American Polish Aero-Club.
Monika Niemiec, who was in her early 20s and a reporter for a Polish radio show, and her father were not club members, Durkin said.
Another club member has said that the group was heading to Florida but that Dobrzanski wanted to stop in North Carolina to check out an airplane he was interested in buying.
Others who died in the crash were Kazimierz Adamski, 65, of Morton Grove, Stanley Matras, 65, of Chicago, and Ireneusz Michalowski, 44, of Des Plaines.