Plane Crash Kills Polish President

What a terrible tragedy for the nation of Poland. I'm praying for the families and friends of the victims, as well as the entire country. RIP.
 
RIP... Thoughts and prayer's are with the families.

Can't believe the Polish Government would let that many people in the COC fly in one plane together.

I flew once with a 4 Star General in a Mil transport and they would not let part of his Staff fly with him.

Again, RIP.
 
I just heard about it today at work. The first thing I thought was "What, they were all on the same plane?!". I can't imagine losing so many US officials if Air Force One went down. Tragic, to say the very least.
 
MikeD said:
Why is your jaw hitting the desk?

Maybe there was another ground-based system to get in there, or a GCA.
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From what I read from the layman reporter it sounded like it was a PAR approach or maybe an ASR. We didn't have ILS in EP-3Es it was all PARs. No reason for jaws to drop.
 
MikeOH58 said:
I can't think of the handle right now, but to the Chief Pilot who works in Russia...Anything you can tell us about this airport? Have you been there beforE?
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fsiflyer is who you are thinking of. He just landed back in Moscow today I believe, so I'm sure he will be on here eventually...
granlistillo said:
Without knowing how it was equipped it seems he might have pushed mins. Mins are mins for a reason. I doubt that tupe had sCATIIIC autoland with a fail safe auto pilot. Just a guess. CFITs like this happened all the time back in the day.
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I have no clue how the Tu's are equipped. This one had been upgraded recently, so you cannot go by what was originally equipped on board.
Shane702 said:
this is taken from an article at MSN.com
The Smolensk airfield is not equipped with an instrument landing system to guide planes to the ground.
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It doesn't necessarily mean anything (lack of ILS), however, it definitely could get interesting with the investigation. A lot of people on this side of the world are wondering what happened and seeing way too many coincidences in this crash. Apparently the forest they crashed in is the same place the massacre happened they were coming to commemorate.

Having said that, I don't buy it. I will wait for the "official" investigation, but there was documented history of "pilot pressures".

MikeD said:
Why is your jaw hitting the desk?

Maybe there was another ground-based system to get in there, or a GCA.
Click to expand...
Maybe an NDB??? LOL. I have done more NDB approaches over here than I ever did, including training. Of course, I have a lot of gee-whiz tech to help me now.

I'll save the story for telling over beers, or for the book eventually, but after Minsk, we ended the day with another NDB yesterday.

Sympathies go to the families, friends, and country of Poland. May this tragedy have meaning, and be a warning to other countries on travel plans (meaning do not put your entire COC in one airplane, train, or automobile).
 
Stone Cold said:
fsiflyer is who you are thinking of. He just landed back in Moscow today I believe, so I'm sure he will be on here eventually...

I have no clue how the Tu's are equipped. This one had been upgraded recently, so you cannot go by what was originally equipped on board.
It doesn't necessarily mean anything (lack of ILS), however, it definitely could get interesting with the investigation. A lot of people on this side of the world are wondering what happened and seeing way too many coincidences in this crash. Apparently the forest they crashed in is the same place the massacre happened they were coming to commemorate.

Having said that, I don't buy it. I will wait for the "official" investigation, but there was documented history of "pilot pressures".


Maybe an NDB??? LOL. I have done more NDB approaches over here than I ever did, including training. Of course, I have a lot of gee-whiz tech to help me now.

I'll save the story for telling over beers, or for the book eventually, but after Minsk, we ended the day with another NDB yesterday.

Sympathies go to the families, friends, and country of Poland. May this tragedy have meaning, and be a warning to other countries on travel plans (meaning do not put your entire COC in one airplane, train, or automobile).
Click to expand...
I defer to your experience as the local expert. Sounded like it was a PAR to me from one report I read. Not sure they do those over there, I assume so because the old Soviets were highly dependent on GCI in making intercepts, due to deficient radars that they would do something like our PARs.
 
granlistillo said:
I defer to your experience as the local expert. Sounded like it was a PAR to me from one report I read. Not sure they do those over there, I assume so because the old Soviets were highly dependent on GCI in making intercepts, due to deficient radars that they would do something like our PARs.
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I have limited experience in Russia, but having flown into a few military fields here in Ukraine, I have never had anything close to a PAR approach. I am not saying they don't have them, as with the weather over here, they should, but I have not experienced any.
 
Stone Cold said:
I will wait for the "official" investigation, but there was documented history of "pilot pressures".
Click to expand...

This quote from the NYT is very telling:

In August 2008, during Russia’s brief war with Georgia, Mr. Kaczynski got into a dispute with a pilot flying his plane to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, according to reports at the time. Mr. Kaczynski demanded that the pilot land despite dangerous conditions, but the pilot disagreed and diverted to neighboring Azerbaijan.

Mr. Kaczynski threatened that there would be consequences for the pilot, the Polish newspaper Dziennik reported. “If someone decides to become a pilot, he cannot be fearful,” Mr. Kaczynski said. “After returning to the country, we shall deal with this matter.”

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/world/europe/12crash.html

It's no doubt tragic, and I feel kind of bad saying this, but if those reports are true, it's not like Kaczynski didn't have this coming. Hopefully some good can come of this.

Really sucks for Poland, though, and I feel for what that country must be going through at the moment.
 
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