Polish singer remembered 43 years after fatal air crash

Friends and fans have paid tribute to popular Polish singer Anna Jantar, who died in an air crash in Warsaw 43 years ago.

Anna Jantar, pictured in 1979.

Photo: PAP/Marek Broniarek

A total of 87 people, including 10 crew, were killed when a Polish LOT Airlines Ilyushin Il-62 plane inbound from New York crashed near the Polish capital’s Okęcie airport on March 14, 1980 due to what was later reported as an engine failure.

It was one of the worst disasters in the history of Polish aviation. #OTD🗓43 years ago PLL LOT IL62 jet crashed during the landing approach near Okęcie airport in Warsaw, killing 87 people on board. The crash was caused by the disintegration of one of the engine’s turbine discs. pic.twitter.com/325Yvv8jSg

— Institute of National Remembrance (@ipngovpl_eng) March 14, 2023

Among the fatalities were American ethnomusicologist Alan Parkhurst Merriam and 22 members of a US amateur boxing team, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.

The site of the March 14, 1980 plane crash near Warsaw's Okęcie airport. Photo: PAP/Ireneusz Radkiewicz

No one survived the crash. Jantar was 29.

43 lata temu, w katastrofie samolotu Ił-62 „Mikołaj Kopernik”, lecącego z Nowego Jorku do Warszawy, zginęła Anna Jantar, popularna piosenkarka i wokalistka. Miała 29 lat.#Jantarhttps://t.co/x8sIquvmpK

— Radio Lublin (@RadioLublin) March 14, 2023

Her daughter, Natalia Kukulska, is now 47 and a successful singer in her own right.

Singer Natalia Kukulska poses near a sidewalk tribute to her mother Anna Jantar during a music festival in the southern Polish city of Opole in 2012. Photo: TVP/PAP/Jan Bogacz

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Source: IAR, polskieradio.pl