So, is the implication that the lights in place at the time deliberately misguided the plane into the trees?
There are issues with the lights if they were in place.
If they were in place and working, the pilot would have seen the lights that were about 1000 meters from the runway.
The pilot broke from the glide slope about 2000 meters out from the runway.
The angle of attack on descent was at the radio beacon which was about 1200 meters out.
The ATC stated it had notified the pilot 1500 meters out that it was off its glide slope.
The plane hit the first tree that had a height of 8 meters and 1200 meters from the runway.
The Russians said the min horizonatal visibilty was 400 meters.
The crash site visibilty was better than the 400 meters and the sky condition was not a total obscuration.
Looking at the angle of the partial obscuration and the angle of the top, the pilot on glide slope would have been just in the fog.
There was a shallow valley which could have contributed to a fog bank in the area 1000 to 200 meters from the runway.
However, if the lights had been on, the pilot would have known that it was not on center of the runway. And would have known this before the 1200 meter mark.
I have my doubts the lights were working or turned on.
And I question the timiming for notifying the pilot at the last second that he was off his glide slope.
ATC had this plane in its hands all the way to the ground.
fog bank 1000 to 2000 meters from the runway