Sokol crashes due to pilot error, say investigators

In the second half of January two Sokol helicopters, produced by PZL Swidnik, crashed. On January 18, a fire department helicopter fell into an artificial lake in South Korea. Two pilots died in the catastrophe; a PZL Swidnik worker and a Korean fireman. On January 29 in Murzasichle, a small village near Zakopane, southern Poland, a Sokol aircraft taking part in a rescue mission crashed during landing. PZL convened a special press conference in which it presented its interpretation of data recovered from the black box. The information was decoded with the help of PZL workers, and by experts from a special committee dealing with aviation disasters (Glowna Komisja Badan Wypadkow Lotniczych). "The crashes were caused by pilot error," announced Mieczyslaw Majewski, President of PZL Swidnik. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 7) A.C.