See below, out of the report. The crew decided to do a a go around in autoflightmode. But that would not be possible due to lack of glideslope signal.
At 10:32:56 while approaching the base turn the PIC took the following decision: “We’ll make an approach. In case of failure we’ll go around in autoflight mode”.
In compliance with that decision at 10:34:20 after establishing on the circle altitude of 500 m the crew engaged the autothrottle. By taking this decision the crew demonstrated low knowledge of the aircraft equipment. In fact Tu-154M does allow going around in the autoflight mode. The appropriate
procedures are written in Section 8.8.2 (4) (d) of the FCOM. The PIC must make sure that:
− the ROLL and PITCH switches (Panel 46) are on;
− the GLIDE SLOPE light on autopilot control panel is on,
and then press the GO AROUND button.
The mentioned procedure assumes that a mandatory condition for arming the autoflight go-around is active Glide slope mode used for autoflight or flight director approach in combination with Approach mode. It was not possible to
use this mode when landing at Smolensk "Severny" Airdrome due to the absence of appropriate ground based navaids (ILS).
in combination with this interesting and plausible thought of
janeczku
The report prooves that the activation of the GO-Around is recorded on the FDR on a ILS guided approach, not the push of the button! But in our case the GO-Around mode was not armed in the first place and couldnt be activated by the push of the button.
So most probably, even if the crew pushed the button, this wouldnt have been recorded on the FDR.
If the last part could be confirmed by somebody?
franzl