Polish singer remembered 45 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 45 years ago.

Anna Jantar

Grażyna Rutkowska / NAC

Eighty-seven people, including 10 crew, were killed when a Polish LOT Airlines Ilyushin Il-62 plane flying 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.

Among the fatalities were 22 members of a US amateur boxing team and American ethnomusicologist Alan Parkhurst Merriam, 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

Overall, the crash claimed the lives of 45 Polish citizens, 35 Americans, four Russians and three Germans.

🗓️ 4️⃣5️⃣ lat temu, podczas lądowania na warszawskim Okęciu, doszło do katastrofy samolotu Ił-62 „Mikołaj Kopernik” (Lot z Nowego Jorku). Zginęło 77 pasażerów (m. in. piosenkarka Anna Jantar oraz 22 reprezentantów USA w boksie amatorskim) i 10 członków załogi.

📰 Dowiedz się… pic.twitter.com/Dx4JxBzCUc

— Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (@ipngovpl) March 14, 2025

No one survived the disaster. Jantar was 29.

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Source: IAR, PAP, polskieradio24.pl, dzieje.pl