LOT Polish airlines Flight 5055 carried a capacity load of 172 passengers and eleven crew members as it lifted off from Warsaw's Okecie Airport last Saturday en route to New York City. About half an hour into the flight, two of the Soviet-built Ilyushin 62M jetliner's four engines apparently burst into flame. In a frantic effort to reach safety, the pilot turned about, dumped most of the plane's fuel and headed back to Okecie. Before he could make it, the other two engines caught fire.
"I saw the plane diving, nose-down," said Anna Zagorska, an eyewitness who lives nearby. "There was...