Before going into this futile debate, please read the full report! I find it reasonably well written, and evidently great care is taken to substantiate every statement and finding with factual information. The only part which I find a little apologetic is the part on the actions of the airport controller, who could have waived off the aircraft when he saw it was way below glideslope (a firm order to immediately abandon approach would probably have been followed by the crew who all had a military mindset), but only gave rather feeble warnings in a wording that probably was not fully comprehended.
The key findings:
The immediate cause of the accident was the failure of the crew to take a timely decision to proceed to an alternate ... the presence of the Commander-in- Chief of the PAF in the cockpit until the collision exposed psychological pressure on the PIC's decision to continue descent in conditions of unjustified risk with a dominating aim of landing at any means.
Contibuting factors ... In case of proceeding to alternate aerodrome the PIC expected negative reaction from the Main Passenger.
The Tbilisi incident (witnessed by both the PIC and the co-pilot) was treated quite extensively in the report (complete section 1.17.1), and the comment of the navigator two (!) minutes before the accident well sums up what must have been on the minds of the crew:
10:38:00 navigator: "He'll go crazy..."
Yes, it was the PIC who actually flew the a/c into the ground, and presented apallingly low standards of airmanship throughout the approach. It was not only his failure to go around at DA that was the immediate cause, but several other actions (or lack of) as well. An interesting overlooked comment in the report is that had the aircraft not hit the large tree causing the wing separation, the PIC's last moment terrain avoidance actions would have led to an unrecoverable stall just a few seconds later.
In my reading the principal causes of this accident were:
- Pressure from the "Main passenger" and the PAF Chief to land at all cost (they paid the price, unfortunately taking the lives of 95 others as well).
- The chain of systemic failures within the PAF that allowed an untrained and unprepared crew to pilot this flight in conditions that were beyond their abilities
I know, the findings will result in many red faces in Poland, but it is time to look away from the last five minutes of the flight, and look for the causes in the weeks and months that preceded it. Anyone contesting the principal findings on grounds of national pride presents the same attitude and arrogance that caused the accident in the first place. Maybe, just maybe a few lessons can be learned...