TRANSLATION:
There is a valley just prior to the runway approach. Fog from it can obscure the pilot’s view of the runway. The Polish pilot tried to get around that by coming at the runway from an angle, then banking hard to try and line up with the runway.
Any plane loses altitude when the wings are banked. This plane is more unforgiving than most. The runway is also a ‘downramp’. It’s highest point is at the end this plane was approaching, so the pilot must deal with the dropping incline.
The pilot gambled on a sharp turn, and then when he leveled off, the plane dropped more than he could compensate for, and the fog obscured visual references to the ground, especially that end of the runway.
One wing clipped a tree, spinning the plane causing the other wing to hit the ground and the plane cartwheeled across the landscape just prior to, and off to the side, of the normal runway approach.
Wow, your translation actually makes sense, but I’m not sure I understand the translation algorithm. ;)
Thanks. So it’s just a case of a translation that’s too simplified as far as “oblique descent”. After reading the entry in the book I found at google I got that they were trying an angular approach just couldn’t follow that through the explanation. Your explanation allows me to “see” it better. It also does make a big difference as far as believing the story the Russians are trying to tell. I still don’t understand the discrepancies in the reported details though — they seem to have been changing almost daily up till this point. Plus there are a lot of unanswered questions, IMHO.
Plus, in the back of my mind I’m aware that they guy in charge until the election was Kaczynski’s opponent politically and I worry about the Polish governments ability to really say it was something else even if it truly was, frankly. BUT, still this explanation leaves a little more possibility for it truly being an accident.