Posted on 04/10/2010 12:55:27 PM PDT by snakzrat
With his twin brother Jarosław, Lech Kaczyński founded the Law and Justice Party PiS, a political party inspired by Catholic teaching which is a member of the eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament. PiS has strongly advocated criminal penalties for former communist officials after the fall of the Soviet Union. It is also often described as homophobic.
While Jarosław was prime minister in 2006-2007 the Kaczyński brothers were the only twin pair to hold the highest offices in a country.
At European level, Polish President Lech Kaczynski had distinguished himself with his opposition to the Lisbon Treaty, having been among the last to sign on 10 October 2009 (EurActiv 08/10/09).
In Brussels, Kaczynski will also be remembered for appearing uninvited at EU summits, where his country is normally represented by the prime minister.
In his country and further East, Lech Kaczynski is likely to be remembered for his active support for the pro-democratic forces in Georgia and Ukraine.
FYI: Poland Wants Stronger Role in EU and NATO Excerpt:
Warsaws goals for 2011, when it is due to hold the EUs rotating presidency. They will include negotiating on the EUs budget for the next 7 years, finding new ways to spur economic growth after the financial crisis and working on relations with the EUs eastern neighbors, Sikorski said.
And:
Poland Sells 30 Million Euros of CO2 Quotas to Japan: Report
http://countusout.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/poland-%e2%80%98stricken-by-second-katyn-tragedy%e2%80%99/
(Excerpt) Read more at euractiv.com ...
When bad things happen, it doesn’t mean that a criminal act took place. It means that something terribly unfortunate happened. Then if proof comes along, we address it.
This talk of conspiracy is premature.
Was Kacznski Assassinated?
“This talk of conspiracy is premature.”
And yet the talk of “accident” isn’t? This pilot who was responsible for flying the most valuable members of the Polish government was such a ninny that he ignored refusal to land? The plane responsible for carrying the most valuable members of the Polish government is so fragile that the wing lops off at the touch of tree tops? And we trust Vlad Putin so much to head up an investigation of this crash?
Could it be a conspiracy? Maybe, but so far it seems like a pilot decision coupled with the misfortune of having a large cadre of Government on the same plane.
If it was Putin's doing, then he had the weathergods on his side, had the Polish pilot on his side as well, and Russian ground control desperately trying to foil his plans by tellng the pilot not to land.>p> However that is not as flashy as an assassination now, is it?
Assasinated?
Nah, sometimes folks just screw up the approach. Weather, non-precisions approach (assumed), the possibility is their for a error. Non-precision approaches are no more hazardous than precision approaches, but if the rules are busted then there is the opportunity for ruination.
Did a Russky aircraft have anything to do with it? Probably not. As I recall, Ron Brown’s aircraft came to grief on a non-precision approach as well. He had the benefit of a US Air Force Crew, and he was flying on a proven B-737. There is not a lot to go wrong there, unless the crew screws the approach up (like they did in spades). Again, if you follow the approach procedure PROPERLY, a non-precision approach is no big deal.
I guess we can wait and see on this one, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for foul play being involved. Plenty of more likely factors
In the fog you might think you were approaching the airfield at a greater altitude than you actually were ... then .........
The reporting of altimeter setting information by an airport traffic control tower and/or by ATC Regional Centers is a routine requirement for safe en route (altitude separation) and terminal area (approach) navigation and has been a standard procedure for many years. Presently, each control tower has one or more precision aneroid or bourdon tube type barometric pressure sensing altimeter setting indicators (ASI) having accuracies on the order of ± 0.020 to ± .040 inches of mercury. Each sensor has to be calibrated periodically in accordance with its own calibration characteristic and this calibration "number" must be "greasepencilled" periodically on the face of the instrument and taken into account in the computation of the reported altimeter setting number. This task is difficult, time consuming and subject to human error. The altimeter setting indicator reading from such instruments is not readily converted into digital format for transmission throughout an airport for remote indication. It is often the situation that different calibration numbers must be added or subtracted from the instrument reading with respect to the various instruments at the airport, often resulting in discrepancies between altimeter settings communicated to aircraft from different sources at the same airport.
Schiphol airliner crash blamed on altimeter failure, pilot error
Investigators in The Netherlands have announced that last month's crash of a Boeing 737-800 was caused by a combination of an instrument failure and pilot error. Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crashed upon approach to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, killing nine and injuring eighty of the 135 passengers and crew on board.
Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch Safety Board, said yesterday that as the aircraft was at 1,950 feet the faulty altimeter indicated that the airliner's height was at minus eight feet. Because the autopilot and autothrottle were running from this flawed data the plane automatically reduced engine power as it would in the final seconds before landing.

The sensitive altimeter
The sensitive altimeter is the cockpit instrument that indicates the aircraft's altitude. The instrument is a refined aneroid barometer with a dial indicating height above a pre-set level rather than atmospheric pressure. The main component of such an instrument is a small, flexible, corrugated metal capsule from which the air has been partially evacuated fitted with a metal closure or diaphragm. There is a spring within the capsule that applies a constant force to the bottom of the diaphragm, while atmospheric static pressure applies a counter force to the top, so that the diaphragm moves as atmospheric pressure changes. The movement of the pressure-sensing capsule is transferred and magnified via a mechanical linkage or piezo-quartz component to a dial pointer or pointers, or a digital display, which indicate the altitude reading. The static pressure is drawn from the aircraft's static vent, which may induce slight position errors due to aerodynamic effects around the vent.
The level in the atmosphere at which any particular pressure occurs is also dependent on temperature as we saw in the 'Airspeed and the properties of air' module but the altimeter does not sense the air temperature. Consequently, all altimeters are calibrated in accordance with the International Standard Atmosphere [ISA] model, which utilises a standard temperature lapse rate with height of 6.5 °C per km. The atmosphere in any region rarely corresponds to the ISA, so aneroid altimeters do not indicate totally accurate height. This is not that important, as true altitude can be calculated, in the rare circumstance that it is needed for terrain clearance purposes. There is no problem with air traffic management, in that all aircraft in the same region, with properly set (and functioning) altimeters, will be out by the same amount.
It is, of course, desirable to set the current local surface pressure into the altimeter by setting that reference pressure into a pressure-setting scale (known since the 1930s as the 'Kollsman Window'), which in turn resets the position of the height-indicating pointers against the dial. Or, if the aircraft is on the ground, the same result is achieved by turning the pressure-setting scale until the altimeter indicates the known airfield elevation. The altimeter in the image indicates an altitude of 1400 feet with the baro-scale set at 29.9 inches of mercury [in/Hg] equivalent to 1013 hPa. If the altitude was 11 400 feet, the pointer with the inverted triangle on the end would be past the figure 1 on the image, indicating +10 000 feet.
In Australia, all barometric pressures are reported in hectopascals [equivalent to millibars]; and in the USA in units of inches of mercury [in/Hg =33.86 hPa]. The sub-scale setting range provided in modern altimeters is from 850 to 1050 hPa.
Altitude encoding
Ok but what do we know right now? The plane crashed in Russia. Everyone is dead. Full stop! To assume right now that the russians or anyone else have someting to do with this is pure conspiracy. What would have happened if this plane has crashed in the US? Would this mean that the CIA did it? I guess not. Right now it´s “just” a plane crash that happened this time in Russia.
How do you know the pilot was warned by ground control?
Of course, it could have been an accident; but the correspondence of negatives is hard to fathom. That said. . .we will probably never know.
Elaborate on “non-precision” approach.
There have been an awful lot of accidents that benefit Putin. I guess he is just one lucky mf.
I guess the big question here is who stands to benefit the most from this? “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
Because MSM is reporting that this was reported; and we know if Putin says it is so. . .then, it is so. He's in charge here; and he did tell us that much - honestly.
Hard to understand the 'good luck' of men like Putin. . .
Ah yes. I feel so much better now. Besides, Putin is leading the investigation, so nothing could possibly be concealed.
Party pooper !!!
In all seriousness, I would think the negatives of this alleged assassination if found out would so far out weight whatever goals Russia would hope to achieve by killing all aboard seems absurd.
Certainly, if Russia goal was to kill the Polish President, they are much cleaner and easier ways to do so and not have it happen on Russian soil.
Just ask Victor Yushchenko !
Because MSM is reporting that this was reported; and we know if Putin says it is so. . .then, it is so. He’s in charge here; and he did tell us that much - honestly
Putin is guilty until proved innocent.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.