ABC News: Vladimir Putin to head investigation into Polish president's death

ABC News (Australia) ^

[quesney]

Russia says Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will personally head the investigation into an aeroplane crash that killed Poland's president.

A total of 96 people were on board the plane that crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk, all of whom are believed to be dead.

Polish president Lech Kaczynski was on board the Russian-built Tupolev 154 jet when it went down in heavy fog near a military airport.

Russian authorities have already said they suspect pilot error in the crash, near Smolensk, in Western Russia.

There are reports the jet made several attempted landings before the crash.

Also on board were leading members of Poland's political elite, including the army chief of staff and the governor of the central bank.

A scan of a list of 88 passengers aboard the plane published on a Polish government website showed the names of Poland's chief of staff, General Franciszek Gagor, and Major General Bronislaw, head of operational forces.

General Tadeusz Buk, head of land forces, air force commander Andrzej Blasik and special forces chief Wojciech Potasinki, as well as navy vice-admiral Andrzej Karweta, were also on the list.

They were part of an official delegation travelling to commemorate the massacre of thousands of Polish soldiers by soviet troops during the second world war.

[MizSterious]

(donning tinfoil hat) (adjusting for comfort) Kinda makes you wonder just what Obama and Putin talked about at their last meeting, doesn’t it. (removing tinfoil hat...for now)

[Elle Bee]

What if the Russian Tower gave them false altimeter setting info?

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

In some flight conditions, an aircraft must operate a transponder for traffic separation purposes. The transponder obtains altitude data from a special altitude encoding altimeter or from a blind encoder; the latter being an electronic device that obtains current atmospheric pressure from the static pressure line and the reference pressure used is preset at 1013.2 hPa. That same reference pressure is used for the altitude encoding function of the altimeter, thus the transponder broadcasts pressure altitude only.

[Canedawg]

OMG! Where is that report?
*****

It’s linked on another crash thread by a credible FR poster. If I find it, I’ll ping you.

[penelopesire]

Check out this spooky pic of Obama with some of the Polish President’s delegation (I can’t post it)

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nimg.sulekha.com/Others/original700/barack-obama-lech-kaczynski-2009-9-23-18-11-4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://newshopper.sulekha.com/barack-obama-lech-kaczynski_photo_980404.htm&usg=__i0crTxjHZgt4nZyCrNvf890k_jI=&h=490&w=640&sz=36&hl=en&start=1&itbs=1&tbnid=UYfefC2ytI0XxM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLech%2BKaczynski%2B%2B%2BPresident%2BObama%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1

[spectre]

“Correction, Putin overseeing the investigation is the SECOND item, the first being the report that ALL of the mobile phones of the deceased passengers were found to be not working.”

Look, here in the US the passengers are told to turn off their cell phones when the plane is taking off and landing.

So were their phones turned off or simply not working?

sw

[Loud Mime]

[Ostlandr]

Is it just me, or does this sound like the first chapter of a Tom Clancy novel? At first, it seems to be a random event- and then one by one the pieces start to fall into place, until you say “No way!” Our thoughts are with the families of the dead.

[penelopesire]

Check out the spooky pic of Obama with Polish delegation:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nimg.sulekha.com/Others/original700/barack-obama-lech-kaczynski-2009-9-23-18-11-4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://newshopper.sulekha.com/barack-obama-lech-kaczynski_photo_980404.htm&usg=__i0crTxjHZgt4nZyCrNvf890k_jI=&h=490&w=640&sz=36&hl=en&start=1&itbs=1&tbnid=UYfefC2ytI0XxM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLech%2BKaczynski%2B%2B%2BPresident%2BObama%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1

[Pan_Yan]

[FarRightFanatic]

Omgosh..... Obama looks like the devil.

[penelopesire]

True..it may be nothing unusual.

[MizSterious]

Bear in mind, the US Jews voted for an anti-Israel, likely Muslim, certainly communist man of unknown (for sure) origins. I hope the Poles make a better promise than that.

[penelopesire]

He looks like he has ‘big plans’ for the polish delegation, doesn’t he. The pic gave me the creeps!

[Canedawg]

Every pic of that cretin is spooky. He looks either crazed, evil or in a drug-induced state.

[kjo]

Reminds me of LBJ personally picking members of the Warren Commission. Or, how about Clinton deciding no further investigation was needed in the crash of Ron Brown’s plane in Croatia? Brown was about to go rogue on Clinton when faced with his son possibly going to prison for Bill and Hillary.

Here’s a prediction: the MSM will ignore this too.

[thethirddegree]

I wonder how Obama will try to take advantage of this crisis.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I recently saw a movie where a serial murderer carried around a tank of compressed air that powered a device used to slaughter cattle.

"No Country For Old Men"

[autumnraine]

Why does it surprise me everytime I see Obama with that evil glare of his? And oddly, it seems only when he’s raising a glass of wine or something. Remember that one of him behind a podium or something. He looks downright demonic in that picture and this one.

[FarRightFanatic]

I wouldn’t doubt that you’re right. Everything he does gives me the creeps.

[FReepaholic]

The beginning of World War III?

The world's economy is in a shambles just like before WW2.