B767PL
I am not disputing that training has not been an issue in the PAF. As far as pilots being pushed, there is no evidence that this had any place on board PF101 on the 10th of April of last year. That is just mere speculation at this point.
Complete horse****. The transcript shows the pilot completely subject to political will of absolutely insane politician (aka main passenger) and his staff.
Also, what needs to be said, Protasiuk (PIC of flight to Smolensk) was about to retire and switch to being a civilian pilot. He probably did not want to go through years of court marshal like the previous pilot who refused Kaczynski's idiotic orders in a quite famous incident a few years back.
Critical to understanding the situation is knowing what was going on that flight to Georgia that MAK/IAC report only mentions.
Situation: Kaczynski decides to get to Tbilisi in support of Shakashvili who was in war with Russian troops at the moment. Approved flight plan calls for flying to Azeiberjan and then driving from there. In the middle of the flight, Kaczynski orders the pilot (Grzegorz Pietruczuk) to fly directly to Tbilisi. When he refuses, he orders a general on board (Krzysztof Zaleski) to give him written orders to fly directly to Tbilisi. He does that and the pilot still refuses, and at this point his direct superior (Tomasz Pietrzak) is called who supports the pilot.
Passengers: Apart from Kaczynski and his crew, presidents of Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are on board.
Some memorable quotes from that adventure:
Lech Kaczyński: Gentlemen, who is head of the armed forces?
PIC Grzegorz Pietruczuk: You, Mr. President.
Lech Kaczyński: If someone decides to be an officer, it should not be fearful.
General Krzysztof Zaleski: Please immediately execute the command of the President and perform the trip to airport in Tbilisi
PIC Grzegorz Pietruczuk: Georgia's airspace is covered by military operations, our aircraft "friend-or-foe" identification system is not compatible with such systems in the Russian aircrafts, with which we can not establish radio communications, because they work on different frequencies. We can be shot down by one of the parties to the conflict. Flight to Georgia is threatening to the life of the president and the safety of the airplane
Colonel Tomasz Pietrzak: It is impossible, because we have no diplomatic clearance, the airspace is likely owned by the Russians and we may end up being shot down. There is a war. Combat helicopters are in the air all around. These are the reasons for which we are unable to fly to Tbilisi.
Lech Kaczyński: If not you will command the flight to Tbilisi, when I come back, I will give you such hell. We have to fly and that's that.
http://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Incydent_gruzi%C5%84ski
In the aftermath the pilot was court marshaled, cleared, and even got a medal from the opposition party, but, he had to look for another job.
So, please, people, do not embarrass Poland anymore by defending these IDIOTS. We should be happy that this complete MORON Kaczynski only killed 95 people in Smolensk instead of getting us into nuclear war after being shot down with other presidents on board who were completely unaware what that moron was doing.