"SadPole, you are the True Pole by the heart"
Let's be serious here and no offence, but SadPole shows the point of view, where he tries everything to put a guilt on the dead polish president. I was not and would never be his supporter, however there's no evidence and even now no presumptive evidence he ordered to land, moreover we have a better picture that the decision they were waiting for was about to choose an alternative airport. Stating that he was even in the cockpit is such a speculation that proves SadPole is just the same as J.Kaczynski and his people but on the opposite side. Nothing but speculation. Yes, shame on you.
Here's my short overview of this accident and I am open to receive your feedback.
On the decision process both parties simply failed. It's quite clear that both had the power to stop the attempt to even approach Smolensk. The information was on both sides and they just lacked the imagination. Both operators, PIC and ATC clearly knew the landing in such conditions is a mission impossible while the PIC could imagine it, ATC saw it when IL-76 was trying to land. The pilot of JAK shares the responsibility as he was on the spot too. The polish side obviously did not want to "disappoint" the Head, while the Russians did not want to have a diplomatic scandal (no press in the World would care about the minima, etc). What is interesting here is the fact they mutually without prior agreement came to the same conclusion - to make an approach and go around at 100m. It seemed "mutually" the best solution to solve the problem (impossibility to land for PIC, avoiding a scandal by showing the pilots the weather is really bad). This deduction is based on the transcript from the cockpit and ATC. The PIC says, "There are no conditions to land, please ask for the decision" and shortly after he adds "I will go down to 100m, but it will probably not help". Nobody was forcing him to make such a statement. It was a conforming decision, he tried somehow to assure his superior he will do everything he can (descend to 100m and go around). So the plane approached Smolensk with the same idea in both minds - descend and get out. The pressure was there, in the cockpit and in the ATC, no doubt about it.
On the operation level as it was GCA approach, both parties failed as well. The pilot was relying on RA while the ATC provided several times the wrong guidance (on course, on glide path) As the intension was not to allow to land at first place as it was nearly impossible, they did not care so much about the course (80m to the left) and glide path (few times above, one slightly beneath). Do not say, ATC did not fail. This was Ground Control Approach (2ndb+par) and the information ATC is providing is crucial. The PIC relays on it. True that he did not read back his altitude, but he was not asked for it either. 10s break between ATC commands is a serious negligence but I am not an expert in the Russian military procedures. Its clear ATC was not competent to guide in such poor meteorically conditions and I do not blame them. We all know this approach should not happen at the first place. For me the mystery is the action that PIC did. My guess is he tried to level off instead of full GA and the evidence for it as I have written in my previous posts is the increase of N1 at the 100m. As he was only 20m HAA this action was not sufficient to avoid the hit. He just hesitated with GA, sad as in the aviation the seconds are eternity.