Ptkay wrote:
"Based on the information we have, the picture is very grim and sad,
bringing to the daylight the properties of the Polish pilots,
which are very desired in the war time, but of no use,
or dangerous in the peace time..."
Respectfully, I have to disagree. This whole mess has very little to do with Polish aviation traditions, qualities of Poles as pilots, or anything like that, but everything with completely worthless politicians who made a mess of things. Yes, pilots are probably at fault for what happened with that flight. But, their mistakes happened long before that flight, when they allowed themselves:- Be micromanaged by politicians over where how they should land their planes
- Be under "training" program where (among other things) some stupid politico would make political decisions on the subject of Tu-154 pilots NOT training on Tu-154 simulators.
- Be under "procedural" regime where the same politico would make a decision to not ask for Russian military navigator, even though the crew clearly did not have a trained navigator that was up to the task and wanted a Russian navigator to be there. (Russians taking their time switching over to western procedures is another story, but not our business to interfere with).
- End up being used in a stupid dog and pony show, where it was "political message" and not safety and sense that dictated procedures. I (obviously) understand significance of Katyn history, but imagine if someone wanted, for example, to make a big ceremony in the US over plight of US's Native Americans and demanded to land at some US Air Force base only because it was closest to some Native American cemetery or battleground and when allowed to do so, refused to play by the US Air Force rules. Because such setup almost guaranteed anything that say ATCs do to be seen as possible political provocation, it really was a very, very bad idea from the start. Russians should also grow some balls in the matter and simply state that Russian Military Airports are not the greatest places for dog and pony shows with foreign dignitaries. It would not hurt anyone to fly to nearest civilian international airport and drive from there.
The best way for pilots to avoid this mess would have been to refuse to do that job under those conditions. And of course, many Polish ex-military pilots did just that, which means that they probably got stuck with pilots who, to begin with, were not too sure of their abilities or who had abilities to be sure of.
At the end of the day, karma is a b***tch and when one screws around with logic and sense, the rewards are soon to follow.