 He had 15,000 flight hours (with 121 of them on the Boeing 757) to his credit.The passengers consisted mainly of Germans, along with nine Poles including two Members of the Parliament, Zbigniew Gorzelańczyk of the Democratic Left Alliance, and Marek Wielgus of the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms (BBWR).Most of the passengers had booked Caribbean package holidays with Öger Tours; Birgenair held 10% of Öger Tours.