Latkowski's claim that Protasiuk declined to fly to Severny because of the weather and had to be ordered to do so does not correspond with the MAK report.
Funny. The interviewer asked exactly the same question. Sorry about not translating more of it.
- Let's start from the beginning. The first friction occurred even before the departure. It was reported that the commander of the crew, captain Protasiuk, did not want to fly after receiving the weather forecast. And that's why the crew's readiness was reported to the President by the commander of the Polish Air Force. Did he count on the favor of the president, to help him to obtain an assignment in NATO?
- That's what they say.
- Or maybe the crew had no precise weather forecast? Maybe Warsaw has not known that the fog thickened in Smolensk?
- Sir, Pyry houses the Air Operations Center. In my days it was called the Central Command Station. The bosses of Hydrometeorological Service of Air Force are there. Meteorologists work there, experts on the weather. They provide weather forecast for the regiment. And what, the pilots did not have it?
- But, their superior decided about the departure.
The information about the conflict prior to the departure was reported several times. The argument was supposed to take place in front of airport surveillance cameras. When Protasiuk family raised that issue, Blasik's wife went ballistic seeing it as attempt to smear her husband and demanded the surveillance tapes to be released to the public. They never were, but Blasik's wife went quiet. That's why the issue persists.
Now, suppose what Latkowski says is true and they must have had the forecast for Severny. Why would the crew pretend they did not, how would they do it on their own initiative?
Note that some Polish military ATC testified that "fixing" weather reports so that VIP flights could take place was a commonplace with the VIPs at question. That's the situation now. All starts to fit.