LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 "Good night! Goodbye! Bye, we're dying!"). All 172 passengers and 11 crew died as the aircraft broke apart and crashed. After the crash of the Il-62 operating as LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007, the airline had started replacing its Ilyushin Il-62s with the more modernized Ilyushin Il-62M version. These had newer engines (Soloviev D-30 instead of Kuznetsov NK-8), but both of these turbofan engines shared the same critical point — low pressure turbine and engine shaft design and construction. According to the Polish investigatory commission, the cause of the crash was the disintegration of an engine shaft due to faulty
Aeris (airline) Aeris (airline) Aeris was an airline company based in Toulouse, France. It was founded in 1999 and was defunct in 2003 after being unable to raise additional capital. Aeris could be viewed as a low-cost carrier. According to Aeris' marketing director A. Scherer, the aim was to lure business travellers from small-and-medium-sized companies away from the national giant. Perpignan was one of these battlegrounds, with Air France operating four daily round-trips from Paris, and Aeris three. The BBC reported on the apparent success of Aeris in 2003: "Waiting in the departure lounge for the 13:25 Aeris flight to Orly, Hadji