Posted on 04/13/2010 10:37:24 AM PDT by jazminerose
Joy Tiz
©2010
The pilot of the plane that crashed killing Poland’s president, Lech Kaczynkski along with Poland’s First Lady and other top government officials refused to take instructions from air traffic controllers, according to Rianovosti:
“’The head of the traffic control group warned of poor weather conditions, but the crew went ahead with the landing without permission. And [they] also made their landing approach without permission.’”
“The [control tower] head said three times to execute a flyby procedure. When the crew did not listen, the control tower could only continue to guide the plane and watch it. It was the only landing approach, the plane crashed at once,’ he added.”
The plane’s crew reportedly failed to follow standard procedure of informing the tower of the plane’s status and maneuvers.
“’Weather conditions, probably a crew mistake, loss of altitude and the pilot’s ambition to land the plane by all means. I think this ambition was due to the fact that there were such high-ranking people onboard… Because of… this false idea that diverting to another airport is a shame the pilot took so many people to Heaven with him,’ Muravyov said.”
Retired Col. Anatoly Murayyov, the air traffic controller who was guiding the plane concludes that the fatal crash was caused by “a combination of factors.”
There’s a fairly decent writeup on Instrument Landing Systems here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_landing_system
I think most of the higher-end business jets and all commercial airliners are good for at least “Category II”, and most commercial airliners are good for at least Category III A”.
Note also, though, that being able to use all that equipment on the airplane requires a corresponding installation on the ground.
JFK, for example, has one runway equipped for Category III ILS approaches. The approach plate is here:
http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/1004/00610I22LC3.PDF
Note the disclaimer at the bottom of “Special aircrew and aircraft certification required”.
One more thing - the fact that an airport the size of JFK can only afford one CAT III ILS runway gives a clue as to how expensive these things are.
That is not a civilian airport but a military airbase and it is not an airline or private but Polish Air Force One plane landing. I think it is incorrect to apply civilian rules there. I really doubt a military ground control may be authorised to close a runway for a friendly Presidential jet flown by another military aircrew. They may advise them to fly to a safer place but they know the pilot is on duty under order and it is a pilot who has to choose does he able to land or not in such a condition. Same about the language they are using. it is not a civilian airport and not a civilian airliner. If they were choosen to speak Ugandian or Russian it is their own business.
I think there is a few place for a conspiracy.
They were speaking English - The Russians went to speaking Russian at the last point when they were off their glide path..
I really doubt a Polish pilot may have problem understanding both Russian or English.
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