Human error, namely trying to land when visibility was less than half a mile, was likely to blame for the jet crash in Russia this weekend that killed Poland’s president and nearly 100 other people, according to an initial investigation. http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/investigators-find-no-problems-with-polish-plane/19435479?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fworld%2Farticle%2Finvestigators-find-no-problems-with-polish-plane%2F19435479
The pilot failed to heed the repeated warnings of air-traffic controllers that advised him to land at another airport, rather than the fog-enshrouded military airport in Smolensk, in western Russia, according to Russian officials.
There is already speculation that the pilot insisted on landing in Smolensk, rather than diverting to Moscow or Minsk, so that his passengers wouldn’t be tardy for the memorial ceremony they were flying in to attend. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/world/europe/13crash.html?hp
The Russian-built Tupolev Tu-154 was carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria and scores of Polish political and military officials. They were headed to Russia to attend a memorial in Katyn to mark the 70 anniversary of the slaughter of 20,000 Polish military officers by the Russians.
The New York Times had an intriguing angle to the story, reporting that Kaczynski had a dispute with a pilot in August 2008. The Polish president reportedly ordered that pilot to land in the capital of Georgia despite bad weather conditions, threatening the man with punishment if he refused.
Despite that threat, the pilot still diverted the plane to nearby Azerbaijan. No action was ever taken against that pilot.
In this weekend’s crash, the flight voice recorder box for the 20-year-old Polish government-owned jet has been recovered. A preliminary probe hasn’t found any evidence of a mechanical failure with the plane.
The jet’s pilot, Capt. Arkadiusz Protasiuk, 36, made several aborted attempts to land in Smolensk before his final fatal pass. At that time while coming in he hit tree tops, and then the plane broke apart, leaving fiery wreckage strewn across the forest and all onboard, 96 people.
The plane’s crew included co-pilot Major Robert Grzywna, 36, with the rest of the crew including Ensign Andrej Michalak, 36, and Lt. Arthur Zieteck, 31.
The jet’s wreckage will remain at the crash site until the middle of the week while authorities continue their investigation of the accident.
According to several press reports, forensics experts from Poland and Russia were working to identify the crash victims, including Poland’s First Lady, by employing DNA testing in many cases.