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See my previous comments in fp story by Migeru National mourning in Poland
and Arthur Gilroy’s diary Putin Heads Investigation Into Polish Crash?
Looking at ILS compatibility and communication in Russian between pilots and ATC
(Aviation Herald) – The air traffic controller at the Air Base said, the airplane attempted only one approach before radio contact was lost.
Russia’s Prime Minister Putin was briefed by local officials, that the required horizontal visibility for the approach to the North Airport would have been 1000 meters with an actual visibility of 400 meters. The airplane impacted trees of a height of about 8 meters (26 feet) about 1200 meters (3950 feet) short of the airfield when the airplane should have been at a height of at least 60 meters (200 feet). The airplane continued to impact multiple single trees and was destroyed before the airplane impacted ground. Emergency responders reached the crash site within 3 minutes. An investigation team of 60 people is on scene.
The air traffic controller at Smolensk Air Base (Northern Airport) said, that the communication between him and the crew was done in Russian, the crew understanding Russian but not being fluent in the language and having trouble to do their readbacks. The airplane was on its first approach, when he advised of the deteriorating visibility and recommended to divert, the crew however responded, that they would give it one try and divert thereafter if they were not able to land. During the approach the crew stopped reading back, the aircraft subsequently impacted ground.
Polish officials confirmed, that the airplane was on its first approach to the Air Base, when it impacted the trees. Three flights were to land at the Air Base in that period of time: the first was a Yakovlev YAK-40 carrying journalists accompanying Poland’s president, which made a safe landing. The second was a Russian Ilyushin IL-76, which diverted after two unsuccessful approaches. The third was the presidential Tupolev TU-154M.
In one of my first comments I linked to these two possibilities:
Perhaps if the ILS equipment had a malfunction … or pilot received erroneous data from ATC.
(RT News) – Speaking to RT, defense analyst and former Polish military pilot Mikhal Fisher noted a previously unmentioned factor that possibly was one of the reasons for the crash.
- “In the Soviet Union/Russia they use a unique instrumental landing system called PRMG. It works almost exactly the same way as the international Western system ILS. However, the two are not compatible. The Polish airplane was modified to use the ILS, as the [Soviet] airplane was mainly flying to various airports that use it.”
Former test pilot Magomed Tolboev told RT that of all the crashes in which the TU-154 aircraft has been involved, only 10 per cent were caused by technical problems.
(Flighglobal) – The investigation found that aircraft 019 – one of the air force’s two newest EADS Casa C-295s and assigned to its 13th Air Transport Squadron- was fully serviceable at the time of the accident, and that a mix of bad weather, air crew inexperience and air traffic control failings led to its loss near Miroslawiec air base.
The C-295 crew reported in to Miroslawiec control and descended to 8,000ft (2,440m), but received inaccurate information about weather conditions, which included a cloud base of 60-90m and visibility worsening to 3km (1.6nm), with haze and a crosswind. Air traffic controllers also reported altitude in metres rather than feet, as displayed on the C-295’s instruments.
My earlier comment: Tupolev TU-154M Crash
Pilot was advised to divert due to heavy fog, it’s the captain’s call and responsibility. Runway length 2,500 mtr (8,200 ft) isn’t very long, came in too low trying to land not being aware of tall tree tops. Poor pilot judgement, safety record of the Tupolev TU-154M is poor and problems were pre-existent in recent past.
(Aviation Herald) – A Polish Air Force Tupolev TU-154M was on approach to Smolensk North Airport‘s (Air Base) unmarked runway (runway heading approximately 270 degrees) in developing dense fog, when the airplane impacted trees about 1500-2000 meters short of the runway and crashed onto the ground coming to rest about 700 meters short of the runway threshold.
The crew was advised by air traffic control in Belarus not to continue to Smolensk due to fog, but to divert to Minsk and later, after hand off to Russian ATC, Russian Air Traffic Controllers recommended to divert to Moscow, the crew however continued to Smolensk. [Notable passengers list]
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."