You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Europe
Breaking: Polish President Lech Kaczynski 'in plane crash'
2010-04-10
Looks like he's dead...
A plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski has crashed near a Russian airport, officials say. Russian media reported that 87 people were killed in the crash, but it is not yet known if anyone survived. The plane was reportedly heading to an airport in the western city of Smolensk when it crashed.

Mr Kaczynski was due to visit Smolensk to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when Soviet troops killed thousands of Poles.
Under non-WOT for now, but a lot of Russians will regard this as Good News, Well Timed.
Posted by:Bulldog

#16  When my instrument instructor taught me to shoot the ILS approach, he said to try it no more than three times, if it looked favorable. That means minimum ceiling and runway visual range published for the approach and for the approach speed of the aircraft. After three attempts, you will start bridging things in your mind and you will "bust" minimums. Besides you are burning fuel up and could be getting into your fuel to go to your alternate.

If you want to play in the fog to the deck, you better be Catagory III equipped and trained, and so should the approach be at the airport. I doubt that the Tupelov was Cat III or even II, and neither was the crew.

Very tragic and unnecessary. Plus they NEVER should have concentrated so much leadership on one plane. US corporations learned that lessons the hard way years ago after a few crashes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2010-04-10 23:27  

#15  They attempted to land the aircraft in spite of repeated requests from ATC that it was unsafe due to zero visibility, and ignored repeated requests that they divert:

Kaczynski, whose body was also said to have been found, was a former anti-communist campaigner with a penchant for taunting the Kremlin. He had every reason to believe he was not welcome in Russia. Polish observers said he may have interpreted an order to divert to Moscow as an attempt to sabotage his big day in Katyn, where he was due to attend a mass and give a speech.

Russian media reports said he had once become angry with a pilot who refused to land in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, on the grounds that it was unsafe. The same thing may have happened at Smolensk, aviation experts claimed. They suggested he may have pressed the pilot to make at least two attempts to land.

Pilot ignored warning not to land

According to the article, the aircraft was dumping fuel and had to land on the fourth attempt.
Posted by: KBK   2010-04-10 21:35  

#14  Landing a reasonably modern airplane at a reasonably modern airport by a reasonably competent crew should be possible even in heavy fog. They aborted the landing attempt 3 times and crashed the 4th time around. The crew knew by then the fog was a big problem and yet they were optimistic enough about their ability to make a good landing that they kept trying. Why? Were the airport instruments giving inconsistent signals? Pro pilots help me out, but my understanding is that full instrument landing requires both aircraft and ground signals. If the ground signals were 'glitchy', could it have been on purpose? Just saying that this works too perfectly for the Russians for me to accept the obvious story, and it is tough thinking God is on Putin's side.
Posted by: Glenmore   2010-04-10 17:21  

#13  My heartfelt sympathies go out to the Polish people.

As Old Spook has said this definitely was an accident. If anything Russian is to blame it's the aged Tupolev.

Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła
Posted by: European Conservative   2010-04-10 16:06  

#12  hopefully they'll sell the fleet "cheap" to the Iranian military
Posted by: Frank G   2010-04-10 11:44  

#11  The presidential Tu-154 was at least 20 years old. Polish officials have long discussed replacing the planes that carry the country's leaders but said they lacked the funds.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, there have been 66 crashes involving Tu-154s, including six in the past five years. The Russian carrier Aeroflot recently withdrew its Tu-154 fleet from service.
Posted by: john frum   2010-04-10 11:30  

#10  After further facts, this does pass the smell test. Its an accident. And very much a tragedy for the people of Poland.


From The Economist:

Polish historical sensitivies about Russia mean that many see the coincidence as sinister rather than tragic. But the plane tried to land four times, in bad weather. Accident is the overwhelmingly likely cause.

Yet like Katyn, which eliminated the flower of the pre-war Polish elite, the plane crash also seems like a decapitation of Polish society. Among the 96 people who died were the chief of the Polish general staff, the head of the central bank, the director of the Institute of National Remembrance (which investigates and documents crimes such as Katyn) and many other of the countryÂ’s top public figures. Many politicians from the opposition Law and Justice Party, which is led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late presidentÂ’s twin brother, were among the delegation.

A growing pile of flowers outside the presidential palace in Warsaw attested to the publicÂ’s stunning sense of loss. Radek Sikorski, the foreign minister, who broke the news to the prime minister Donald Tusk this morning and said that the head of government wept on hearing it. Both men had been at Katyn earlier in the week, at a ceremony attended by the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.


This is a sad sad day for our brave allies, the Poles. Stop and pray for them.
Posted by: OldSpook   2010-04-10 11:11  

#9  No, it doesn't. If I were Pooty and wanted to put Polaks in their "right" place, this would be the exact way to do it. What would Buraq do, vote present?
Posted by: twobyfour   2010-04-10 09:55  

#8  Heavy fog in the pics from the scene.
Posted by: Grunter   2010-04-10 09:53  

#7  Doesn't initially pass the smell test.
Posted by: OldSpook   2010-04-10 09:18  

#6  That Katyn. Perhaps the Polish governement should petition to have him buried there.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2010-04-10 09:11  

#5  Kaczynski had been expected for a memorial service in Katyn.

That Katyn?
Posted by: Shipman   2010-04-10 09:09  

#4  Let's see... Putin gets Kyrgyzstan and Poland all in one week. I am willing to bet Turkmenistan is next...

A weak US means they regain their old soviet sphere.

MR "just punch me in the face" obama has no clue. They just laugh at him.
The Russians sent more fuel to the bushir facility in Iran on the same day they signed a nuke treaty.
Russians also said that there can be only one military base in Kyrgyzstan - also on the same day, Russian troops moved in to Kyrgyzstan.
Posted by: newc   2010-04-10 08:51  

#3  According to Auntie Beeb, there were some other high-ranking Polish government officials on the flight with him (army chief of staff, deputy foreign minister, a central bank governor). This could get interesting....
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2010-04-10 08:29  

#2  The President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, announced that he has created a special commission for the investigation of the plane crash. The commission will be supervised by the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin.

link

Fox guarding investigating the henhouse raid.
Posted by: Phumble Johnson6373   2010-04-10 05:39  

#1  Well, looks like they got themselves another Pole just in time for the remembrance. Remembrance, KGB-style.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2010-04-10 04:30  

00:00