The main task of the State Commission on Aircraft Accident Investigation is to investigate accidents and serious incidents for the purposes of preventive safety measures in a broad sense. In the adopted resolutions, the commission does not indicate persons guilty or responsible for the accident; its members cannot be expert witnesses in the cases investigated by the commission. The reports we publish, when the works on a given case is finished, do not include assessment who made the mistake. They focus on specifying the cause of accident and include guidelines, if possible, how to behave to avoid such mistakes in the future, says Maciej Lasek in a talk with Agnieszka Wójcik.
Mistake at the Start
The 6th Małopolska Air Show takes place on the historic Kraków Czyżyny airport on the last weekend of June. It is raining on the first day. Thick clouds make it more difficult, or even impossible, for the pilots to do aerobatics. However, on Sunday the Sun starts shining, crowds of spectators arrive and the pilots reach the peaks of their abilities. Everyone has a great time and no-one expects that a tragedy will happen soon. By Jacek Hajduk.
Airport Medical Service
The Medical Protection Unit of the Airport Rescue and Fire fighting Services provides medical care at the Kraków Airport. It is a task of the unit to protect all the aircraft operations. By Justyna Zajączkowska.
Flight Interrupted
It was to be a nice and easy flight. A surprise for the newlyweds. A bunch of flowers dropped from the airplane was to fall in front of the young couple... This went off well but a moment later the airplane crashed. By Marcin Betleja.
In the Clouds... But Keeping One's Head
Used for towing gliders, a PZL-104 Wilga aircraft was towing a glider belonging to the Świdnica aero club, when, at the height of 30-40 metres, engine trouble appeared. The pilot of the Wilga aircraft ordered via radio the glider team to release the rope, and made an attempt to get the airplane on the ground in an unbuilt area, as close to the airfield, as possible. Nevertheless, after a while the engine stopped working. By Ryszard Starko.
Last Lesson
At 11.54 a.m. on 28 August, the District Alarm and Dispatch Centre in Warsaw received information about a glider crash near the Bemowo airport. The glider crashed on the area of allotment gardens. By Artur Laudy.
With Rescue Precision
In the first six months of this year there were in total 464 air occurrences in Poland, including: 39 air accidents, 5 serious air incidents, 292 air incidents and 128 other air occurrences. These data do not include air accidents of military aircrafts, Mi-24 helicopter and An-28 B2RF aircraft. By Paweł Frątczak.
Leader in Action
Commanding rescue operations plays a special role in organizing a rescue action. It is a difficult process, requiring appropriate preparation, training and professional experience. Even the slightest mistake of a rescue operations commander may have fatal consequences for people, property and environment. By Jerzy Ranecki.
Nightmare in Gaspol
An untight valve of a 50-tonne railway tanker carrying propane and butane gas together with methanol leaking from a 28-cubic-metre tank on the area of Gaspol SA liquid gas bottling plant in Stąporków were not a coincidence, but a conscious activity of unknown persons. By Grzegorz Ryski.
Narrow Escape from Motorway Apocalypse
"Autostrada 2009" is the name of another series of coordinating trainings planned for the years 2008-2012, which are to prepare rescue services for actions connected with the organization of large mass events, including Euro 2012. Similarly to the previous trainings, like "Pirotech 2008" and "COP-14", the element of surprise was most important, as the entities participating in the training had not been informed earlier about it. The organization of simulation played also an important role. By Tomasz Daszkiewicz.
Doomsday
Three passenger cars run into crashed vehicles standing at a road junction. One of the cars drives into a semitrailer, another one hits a bus on the other side, and, because of the collision, the third one rolls over several metres in front of the bus. A moment later the booth of the tractor unit bursts into flames... By Krzysztof Łangowski.
Large-scale Rescue Response
Organized under the code name "Forest 2009", the regional training for the sub-units of the central operational resources support of the SFS took place on the area of the Głogów district. Firefighters from Lower Silesia, the Lubuskie province, the Wielkopolska province and the West Pomerania province participated in the training. By Lech Lewandowski.
Shining Attitude
One of the participants of a follow-up training for a firefighters of a fire prevention unit, which took place in the Central School of the SFS in Częstochowa saved a life of a woman when he was on a pass... By Piotr Zdziechowski.
SFS in State Defence System
The 15th International Logistics Fair LOGISTYKA 2009 and 17th International Defence Industry Exhibition which took place in Kielce went down in history. Almost 300 exhibitors and the swing with which they presented their products on the area of over 19,200 square metres prove that the fair is among the most prestigious fairs in Europe. By Bogdan Romanowski.
Urban Agglomeration Hazards
The exercises organized within the cooperation framework of European towns and regions aimed at the exchange of experience between practicing experts from the largest cities of Europe. Another task of the exercises was to present innovative solutions concerning organization and functioning of the urban security systems in large agglomerations in the light of the contemporary threats. By Piotr Cholajda.
Goodbye to Summer
The 5th "Safe in the City" fete, which was the finale of the Summer in the City project, was organized in Warsaw in August. By Bogdan Romanowski.
Building School
Previously we tried to build a single-family house without the necessity of meeting expensive or troublesome requirements concerning fire safety. Today we are going to deal with a school. It can serve as an excellent example for learning fire safety design, as a school is a building with clearly specified purpose. Moreover... not everyone has been in a philharmonic hall, but in a school at least once a year we were for sure. By Paweł Rochala.
XXL Water Supply
It cannot be denied that the fire protection technology has been developing intensively and the scope of actions taken by the fire prevention units in Poland has broadened in the last 30 years. Chemical rescue, medical rescue, search groups, crisis management, terrorism, GPS, GIS, SWD these are the keynotes of the recent development of the SFS. In the total number of interventions, the share of fires is decreasing. But fires still break out and are still extinguished with water, which has to be delivered to the site of the fire. By Aleksander Adamski and Bernard Król.
Keeping Tradition
The Wielkopolska Museum of Firefighting in Rakoniewice celebrated its beautiful, 35th anniversary in August. Undoubtedly, its activity has an important influence on spreading knowledge and propagating traditions of fire service not only on the area of the Wielkopolska province but also in the whole country. By Bogdan Romanowski.
Russia (2)
In the previous issue of Fire Review I described the most important fire service distinctions awarded to the firefighters by the National Award Fund of the Russian Federation. Today I would like to present the first part of the selected fire service distinctions awarded by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation (???). By Krzysztof Krężel.
Airplane Crashes Trauma of Victims and Rescuers
Air transport is becoming increasingly popular in Poland. We travel for business, holidays, or to visit family abroad. According to statistics, an airplane is a safer means of transport than a car, since more people die every year in car accidents than in airplane crashes. By Anna Kasperczyk.
Insufficient Satisfaction
It was the fourteenth time when the International Fire Brigades Competitions was organized and the seventeenth time when the International Youth Fire Brigades Competitions took place. The competitions, called also Fire Brigades Olympic Games, are organized every four years by the International Association of Fire and Rescue (CTIF). By Piotr Pietrzak and Małgorzata Jarocka-Krzemkowska.
Sports Rescue
Sport water rescue is a sport whose origins date back to 1900 in Poland, when the first competitions of this type were organized in Warsaw. By Magdalena Bielenia.
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