36th_Special_Aviation_Regiment

36th Special Aviation Regiment

36th Special Aviation Regiment

Military unit


The 36th Special Regiment of Aviation Transport (Polish: 36 Specjalny Pułk Lotnictwa Transportowego; 36 SPLT) was a special aviation regiment of the Polish Air Force, established in 1945. All of its aircraft were for national public use, the most important being transport of Polish politicians and Ministry of National Defence highest officials & forces commanders. It was headquartered at the 1st Air Base at Warsaw Chopin Airport (formerly Okęcie). Between 1947 and 1974 it operated as Special Air Regiment, earlier as Government Transport Squadron. It was shut down in 2011 after the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash accident report found serious deficiencies in its organization and training, and its aircraft retired.

Quick Facts Active, Country ...
VIP airliner Tupolev Tu-154M Lux at the airport in Zagreb

Accidents

  • On 28 February 1973 a government airliner Antonov An-24W serial number 97305702 (tail number 012), crashed in Szczecin, north-west Poland. All 18 people on board were killed (including ministers of the interior of Poland and Czechoslovakia).[1]
  • On 4 December 2003 Mi-8 helicopter carrying Poland's Prime Minister Leszek Miller crashed near Warsaw, all people on board survived.

On 4 August 2011, the regiment was disbanded by the Polish Minister of National Defence as a direct consequence of the 2010 crash. The regiment officially ceased to exist on 31 December 2011; however, the 1st Air Transport Base continues to transport government VIPs by helicopter. Since then all Polish government officials have been using civil aircraft owned by LOT Polish Airlines, mainly two Embraer 175 operated exclusively for government.

Equipment disbandment in 2011

Previously operated transport aircraft including Lisunov Li-2, Ilyushin Il-14, Antonov An-24 and Tupolev Tu-134.

More information Model, Origin ...

References

  1. "Katastrofa An-24 sprzed 39 lat. Niepublikowane zdjęcia".


Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article 36th_Special_Aviation_Regiment, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.