nicky, the information available is the same for everyone as far as saying a pilot could gather all the info themselves or given to them by the company- you've shown that with a bit of time on the 'net you've got hold of the aip. however, if you were a ba captain and you flew into lodz for the first time you could say on here (with hindsight following this event) that you would spend the evening before studying all charts and looking at clearways, stopways, the taxi route, the terminal etc... but i would call you a liar.
in reality, you would probably simply turn up to the crewroom, pull the jeppeson chart out (if that's your companies chart supplier of choice) and take a look at arrivals, the type of approaches available, local terrain (low level charts, info on flight plans etc) and then have a chat to the guy sat next to you about it.
i am an fo with ryr out of ema and have flown to lodz several times. i can't remember noticing this area. i would have said something if i had noticed it visually, however i am prepared to hold my hand up and say that i hadn't spotted it on a chart. at ryanair we have the jeppeson charts printed in booklet form, each booklet containing all charts appropriate to that particular airport. along with this booklet we carry the rtow charts which, in almost all cases, has an airfield briefing section at the front which is a summary of the airport and is an excellent way of detailling the entire flight expected from star to sid and all in between (including local weather phenomena, anomalies, expected atc routings/descent profile planning and descent points to be expected etc..).
the company is very aware that they will always be under scrutiny for the guys and girls they recruit- plenty who are young, old, low houred and who don't have english as their mother tongue. this will never be an explanation for events like this however. i would say we hold the strongest and tightest sop's in the business, everything is written down for reference and when it comes to briefings we are hammered on these when it comes to all aspects of training.
in summary, this could happen to anyone. that's not to say lets not look at it and discuss, because we all know that's the best way to learn.
be glad it wasn't you and well done for those of you who admitted that you've been a bit poor in the past at studying that clearway is available.
bongle bear