Janina Antonina Lewandowska ( 22 April 1908 in Kharkiv - 22 April 1940 in Katyn ) was a Polish World War II pilot killed in the Katyn massacre . Lewandowska ( née Dowbor-Muśnicka ) was born 22 April 1909 , in Kharkiv in the Russian Empire ( now Ukraine ) . Her father , Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki , was a Polish military general . As a teenager , she joined the Poznań Flying Club and earned her glider and parachutist certificates . She learned to fly light aircraft by 1937 . Shortly before the war began , she married instructor-pilot Mieczyslaw Lewandowski
Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
Janina Lewandowska