Ahead of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s report, Wednesday, on the ongoing investigations in Poland and Russia of the causes of the Smolensk air disaster, it has been revealed that seconds before the crash an alarm system warned the pilots about the danger of flying too low.
Analysis of black boxes show that the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) issued an alarm in the cockpit, thirty seconds before the plane hit the tops of trees one kilometer from the landing strip. It is possible, though, that the crew ignored the warning because they knew that the military airport near Smolensk was not included in the GPWS data base.
“If the pilot was absolutely sure that landing was safe and knew that the alarm would be issued automatically because the airport was not in the system, it is obvious that he could have ignored it,” says Capt. Grzegorz Pietruczuk, who pilots Tu-154s.
Pietruczuk adds that the Russian air control could have made a mistake as well, not knowing that the presidential plane was fitted with a barometric altimeter.
Head of the training section at the Polish Air Force Gen. Anatol Czaban, assures that the head of Tu-154’s crew Capt. Arkadiusz Protasiuk was a highly experienced and skillful pilot who flew almost 300 hours last year and underwent a series of vocational training sessions, including risk assessment for passenger planes and piloting a plane with the use of onboard navigation instruments.
Learning from experience
After the crash of a military CASA C-295 in January 2008, in which top Polish Air Force commanders died, the Defence Ministry ordered re-training of all air personnel. Safety procedures were also tightened, including new rules which stipulate that commanders-in-chief and their deputies were not allowed to travel together. Military airports were also modernized and licenses for military pilots and air controllers were introduced. “Pilots from the 36th Special Aviation Regiment, who transport Polish politicians, are trained to perform different types of landing also at airports which are not well equipped,” says Czaban.
Gen. Czaban claims that it is highly improbable that a pilot would ignore air control’s warnings about altitude and he does not know of such a case where this has happened.
He suspects that the air controller, who is a key person, probably did not forbid landing but merely suggested not to land at Smolensk airport. It was reported immediately after the crash that air traffic control warned the pilot of the doomed aircraft that landing conditions were poor and suggested the plane land at Moscow or Minsk airports.
Czaban explained that the Polish pilot had four possibilities: he could have waited for the fog to disperse and only then attempt to land, because there was enough fuel in the aircraft at the time; he could have flown to another airport, as suggested by the air control, and fly back to Smolensk if weather conditions improved; he could have landed at a different airport; or he could have flown back to Warsaw.
In order to establish why the pilot decided to land near Smolensk in spite of thick fog a thorough expertise is needed, Czaban said.
Prosecutors say they are still trying to establish the exact timing of the crash from the four flight recorders that are being analyzed in Moscow and Warsaw.
Polish prosecutors say they have questioned 60 witnesses as part of the ongoing investigation into the plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others. (mg)
Source: PAP, IAR, TVN24