Originally Posted by
thepotato232
You would expect the president in this situation to be fully cognizant of the terrible risks
Not that president (Kaczyński). During Georgia-Russia war, Kaczyński with several other presidents flew to make a political show of supporting Georgia (because anti-Russian rhetoric was the base of Kaczyński's politics), the planned flight destination was in another country near Georgia, then ground travel to Georgia was planned. During the flight, Kaczyński ordered the crew to change flight destination directly to Georgia which airspace was a war zone at the time, in fact controlled by Russian military. The plane easily could be shot down. The crew refused then, landed at planned destination, presidents ground-traveled to Georgia safely. Later Kaczyński attempted to court-martial the PIC, the PIC suffered some career consequences. The FO in that flight was the same Protasiuk which later was the PIC who scud-runned (with Kaczyński and others) into the ground in Smolensk. Yes, Protasiuk is guilty. But Kaczyński too.