Military vs GA pilots
Hi All,
Interesting reading. I have flown with both brilliant and appalling military and General Aviation pilots. My experience with ranking (above Squadron Leader or US equivalent) officers who have not regularly flown (and I emphasise this) is that you have to watch them very carefully. Be prepared to take control and accept the consequences. I once flew with a Wing Commander who TWICE forgot to lower the gear on approach, both times on the same sortie!!. When I reported his incompetence, I was grounded for a week ( the Squadron Commander had just passed him on his annual competency check, incidentally). I was a Pilot Officer at the time......
But that is an aside. What does strike me as relevant is that when carrying VIP's in the Military, the most senior pilot is the designated PIC. Surmise.... maybe he was not fully current on the aircraft? There seems to be so many conflicting reports. TU154 engines are notorious for in-flight failures. Could it be possible that a catastrophic failure of one of the engines adversely affected the hydraulics, therefore preventing a successful go-around? Witness testimony suggests this. But you have to ask the question - are they expert witnesses? Experience suggests that they are not, especially when the viz is 0/0 (or close to). Only the Accident Investigators will be able to determine this.
Only those on the flight deck will ever have full knowledge of what actually happened. The rest is all conjecture, even though the "black boxes" have been recovered. Although the "Iron Curtain" no longer exists, we may still never know the full story.
My sympathies lie with the Polish People, however. Whichever way you wish to approach this incident, it is a tragedy. Hopefully the full story will be released so that we can all learn from the error(s), and make changes to our own SOP's that would prevent such an accident in future.
400R