Below: Marek Szufa's Skybolt in action over Konstancin; both photos 5 September 2008.
Marek Szufa was a LOT Boeing 767 pilot with 20,000 hours flying experience; he was also an acrobatic glider champion.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Another Polish airman dies
I was saddened to hear of the death of Marek Szufa (below) in an air crash yesterday. He died after his aircraft hit the Vistula river in Płock, at the air show there. I am also mindful of the death two weeks ago of Polish architect Stefan Kuryłowicz, who failed to heed air traffic control advice that the weather at his destination airport was dreadful. He pressed on, in the best tradition of 'debeściaki', Polak potrafi, etc., and killed himself along with three other people. Marek Szufa, however, died doing something he loved, mindful of the risk, and endangering the life of no one else.
Below: Marek Szufa's Skybolt in action over Konstancin; both photos 5 September 2008.
Marek Szufa was a LOT Boeing 767 pilot with 20,000 hours flying experience; he was also an acrobatic glider champion.
Below: Marek Szufa's Skybolt in action over Konstancin; both photos 5 September 2008.Marek Szufa was a LOT Boeing 767 pilot with 20,000 hours flying experience; he was also an acrobatic glider champion.
When flying after Marek Szufa in my glider, years and years ago, I was always happy when the colleagues joined us with an ultra short tow rope, perhaps only 10m long, or at most 12.
ReplyDeleteThis was not exactly according to the regulations, but Marek was not known as someone who had flown the towing plane exactly to the regulations.
Flying turns with banking angles of 80° after him was fun, giving me a look at him from ABOVE. Starting in strong thermals and gusty winds was a thrill. The moment of launch, the moment when when aerotow ends and free sailplaning begins, has been signalled by Marek Szufa with a beautifully exercised, yet very sudden quarter roll to the left, immediately followed by an immelmann dive to the right.
In his soul, he was always a fighter. In his last flight he got too involved with the smoker. This led him to let slip the attention given usually to the height of flight for one brief moment.
I'll miss him.
Very sorry to hear about this.
ReplyDeleteThe air traffic accident investigation team has not finished their work yet, so this is VERY unfair, to write "He pressed on, in the best tradition of 'debeściaki', Polak potrafi, etc., and killed himself along with three other people".
ReplyDeleteThey have NOT completed their report, but you already know and you can judge him. After Smolensk every Pole is an aeronautics expert, and so you are and expert too, Michael...
How truly Polish it is...
BTW, Dreamliner is coming to Okęcie this Friday, approx. 10.00 CET. Go and have some fun. And think BEFORE you write something.
Regards,
Neighbour - to me it's cut and dry. Kuryłowicz should have heeded the ATC warning and landed his plane at the nearest airfield where it was safe to do so. No enquiry will change my mind on that one.
ReplyDeleteThere is a HUGE difference in health and safety culture between the UK and Poland. Your comment serves to highlight it for me.
The other side of the coin though - despite Poland's mass slaughter on the roads, building sites etc (three to five times greater fatality rates than in safety-conscious UK), Poland shows verve, determination, get-up-and-go in abundance - the very things that once made the British Empire great.
Coś za coś. No namby-pamby, mollycoddling Nanny State - we pay the price with thousands of needless deaths - but then as a nation of individuals bent on getting there regardless, Poland is achieving more than the UK. Swings and roundabouts.