Col Tomasz Pietrzyk, former commander of the Tu-154 Squadron
who left his position and the army in 2008 in protest against poor safety standards
in his unit commented today in an interview with the TVP 2:
1. Smolensk has no "western" navigation aids. No ILS, no VOR.
2. Smolensk is "difficult" in poor weather conditions.
3. Smolensk is similar to Mieroslawiec (where CASA crashed)
only "suggestions" form the ATC, so this confirms, it was PAR approach.
(Miroslawiec CASA tragic approach was PAR).
4. The ATC in Smolensk didn't declare the airfield "closed", they just
"suggested" alternate.
5. They did 4 holding circuits, not approaches, this was the first landing attempt...
He concluded:
"I will not speculate".
Last edited by Ptkay; 11th Apr 2010 at 17:38.