VHF omnidirectional range
The chartered aircraft to New York City took off from runway 33 at Okęcie Airport at 10:18 a.m. The flight was to continue on to San Francisco after refuelling in New York. The pilots were cleared to climb to , on a course set to Grudziądz VHF omnidirectional range (VOR), which was reached at . Soon after Flight 5055 took off from Warsaw, the crew was instructed by air traffic control (ATC) to climb to an altitude of as quickly as possible: