Ptkay, what there was there was. Somehow they were flying before, even to Haiti. Though I don't know with navigator or without. Must be before - to better equipped aerodromes. And even to this very Smolensk one - as well!
Group 5 Conducting the flight before entering the zone of responsibility of the Smolensk-Northern aerodrome.
a. Flight out from Warsaw was performed at 9:27, with a delay of 27 minutes to the already changed flight time (9:00). Previously the flight was planned for 08:30.
b. The flight was going through the territories of three states: Poland, Belarus and Russia. Echelon of flight 10,000 metres approximately.
Radio-talks with the despatchers of Minsk and Moscow were conducted in English, with the despatcher of Smolesnk-Northern - in Russian.
(what did they talk with Moscow about?) (Moscow must have been their spare aerodrome?, on top of Minsk)
Group 6 On informing the crew of the weather in the aerodrome of destination as worse than the established minimum.
a. During the flight, the crew was repeatedly informed of this by the despatchers from Minsk, Smolensk, as well as by the Yak-40 crew of the Air Force of Poland, who conducted landing in Smolesnk-Northern at 9:15, which is approximately 1hr 30 minutes before the catastrophe:
- at 27 min approx. before the catastrophe, when the plane in lowering mode was crossing the height of 7,500 metres, despatcher of Minsk-Kontrol informed the crew that in their aerodrome of destination is fog, visibility 400 metres.
- At establishing connection with the aerodrome Smolensk-Northern the crew twice received the info from them that in the aerodrome is fog, visibility 400 metres, conditions for accepting them - there are not.
- At the same time approximately (16 minutes before the catastrophe), from the crew of Yak-40 of the Republic of Poland Air Force, the crew of TU-154 received information about visibility 400 metres and vertical visibility of 50 metres
- At about 11 minutes before the catastrophe the crew of Yak-40 informed the crew of Tu-154 that the crew of the Russian IL-76 performed two "go-s" (at it) and left for the spare aerodrome.
- 4 minutes before the catastrophe the crew of Yak-40 informed that their own estimation of visibility is 200 metres.