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Listed below are the worst disasters in Poland's history, listed by death toll. This list excludes warfare, the Holocaust and intentional acts of destruction, but may include accidents in which the military, Polish or foreign, was involved (e.g. Osiecznica bus disaster - a collision between a Polish bus and a Soviet Army's truck).
Some of the disasters listed here occurred outside of current Polish borders (e.g. the Smolensk Tu-154 crash) or in times when Poland was not internationally recognized (e.g. during the partitions of Poland), but the predominant number of victims were either Poles or Polish citizens.
Disaster | Type | Location | Deaths | Date | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 | Aviation accident | Warsaw | 183 | 9 May 1987 | [1] |
Kleofas coal mine disaster | Mining accident | Katowice | 104 | 3–4 March 1896 | [2] |
Barbara-Wyzwolenie coal mine disaster | Mining accident | Chorzów | 103 | 21 March 1954 | [3] |
Disaster | Type | Location | Deaths | Date | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Smolensk Tu-154 crash | Aviation accident | Smolensk | 96 | 10 April 2010 | |
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 | Aviation accident | Warsaw | 87 | 14 March 1980 | |
Makoszowy coal mine disaster | Mining accident | Zabrze | 72 | 28 August 1958 | |
Otłoczyn railway accident | Train wreck | Otłoczyn | 67 | 19 August 1980 | |
Katowice Trade Hall roof collapse | Building collapse | Chorzów | 65 | 28 January 2006 | [4] |
1928 Poland Derecho | Derecho | 62 | 4 July 1928 | ||
Wielopole Skrzyńskie cinema fire | Structure fire | Wielopole Skrzyńskie | 58 | 11 May 1955 | [5] |
1997 Central European flood | Flood | Western Poland | 56 | July 1997 | |
1934 flood in Poland | Flood | South of Poland | 55 | 14-20 July 1934 | [6] |
1980 Górna Grupa psychiatric hospital fire | Structure fire | Górna Grupa | 55 | 31 October 1980 | [7] |
Sinking of the MS Jan Heweliusz | Shipwrecking | Baltic Sea (near Rügen) | 55 | 14 January 1993 | |
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 | Aviation accident | Polica (near Zawoja) | 53 | 2 April 1969 | |
Rotunda PKO Bank explosion | Gas explosion | Warsaw | 49 | 15 February 1979 | [8] |
Disaster | Type | Location | Deaths | Date | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bratoszewice level crossing collision | Bratoszewice | 9 | 30 July 2012 | [34] | |
1983 Łódź gas explosion | Gas explosion | Łódź | 8 | 7 December 1983 | |
1963 smallpox epidemic in Wrocław | Epidemic | Wrocław | 7 | 17 July – 19 September 1963 | [35] |
2017 Świebodzice tenement collapse | Building collapse | Świebodzice | 6 | 8 April 2017 | [36] |
ToNiePokój escape room fire | Structure fire | Koszalin | 5 | 4 January 2019 | [37] |
2008 Poland tornado outbreak | Tornado | Opole Voivodeship, Silesian Voivodeship and Łódź Voivodeship. | 4 | 15–16 August 2008 | |
2022 missile explosion in Poland | Explosion | Przewodów | 2 | 15 November 2022 |
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The 2010 Central European floods were a devastating series of weather events which occurred across several Central European countries during May and June 2010. Poland was the worst affected. Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia were also affected.
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The Szczekociny rail crash occurred on 3 March 2012 when two passenger trains collided head-on near the town of Szczekociny, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. Sixteen people died in the incident and 58 were injured. An investigative report showed that the cause of the crash was due to human error by train dispatchers and the train drivers.
On 4 July 1943, a Liberator II aircraft crashed off Gibraltar shortly after takeoff, killing all but one of the seventeen people on board. Among the victims were several senior Polish military leaders, including General Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile. The plane's pilot was the only survivor.
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Ursus rail crash was a rear-end train collision, that occurred at 6:20 a.m. on 20 August 1990 in Warsaw neighborhood of Ursus. 16 people were killed and 64 were injured.
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MS Jan Heweliusz sank on 14 January 1993, between about 04:10 and 05:12 (UTC+1) as the ship was crossing the Baltic Sea, en route from Świnoujście, Poland, to Ystad, Sweden. Out of 64 passengers and crew, 55 died in the disaster, making it the largest peacetime maritime disaster in Polish history.
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