The Air Crash That Killed The President Of Poland | The Smolensk Air Disaster
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- Опубликовано: 27 фев 2021
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TU154 Image:Alan Lebeda - www.airliners.net/photo/Poland...
This is the story of the Smolensk Air disaster, the disaster where the polish presidential airplane crashed while attempting to land at Smolensk, a town in russia. Before we start, This video is based on the russian report, there's a polish report they differ slightly. If you want me to take a look at that do let me know in the comments below.
On the 10th of april 2010, A TU154 was flying from warsaw poland to smolensk in russia with the president of poland Lech Kaczyński, he was flying with his wife, high ranking members of the polish military and polish citizens who were travelling to smolensk to take part in a memorial. This trip was special and it was the culmination of weeks of back and forth between the two countries to sort out the logistics of this mission. When the president of any country travels it is a big deal. Smolensk airport was not an international airport and so was not up to ICAO standards, the controllers there didn't even speak english so all ATC transmissions were to be made in russian.
In the days leading up to the flight, plane after plane landed at the small smolensk airport carrying members of the polish delegation and finally by the 10th of april everything was ready for the president's arrival. The plane was to take off at 8 am local time but the plane took off at 9:27 am after being delayed. The plane cruised at 33,000 feet until it was under the control of minsk ATC, and they allowed the plane to descend down to 12000 feet. Minsk center had some bad news though. The visibility at Smolensk was bad it was at 400m or 1300 feet.
They checked in with their colleagues, A yak 40 had taken off before them carrying some members of the polish delegation. The Yak 40 landed at around 9 am and they said that as they landed visibility halved from 4km or 13,000 feet to 2 km or 6500 feet. In addition to that an IL76 made two approaches to the airport and then opted to divert because the weather was just so bad. At 9:40 the visibility was measured to be 800 meters or 2600 feet and the cloud base was at 262 feet, well below the minimums for the NDB approach onto runway 26.
By 10:23 am the plane was in contact with the tower at smolensk. Smolensk tower checked with the crew about the fuel that was remaining and then told them that they could divert to either minsk or vitebsk. But despite the bad weather, the crew wanted to make a “trial approach” to see if they could make it. The controller cleared them to try, but the controller warned them to not go below 328 feet and told them to expect to go around when they hit 328 feet. The presidential TU154 flew the pattern they checked in with the crew of the Yak that had landed earlier, to get an idea of what lay ahead of them. The crew of the yak told them that it was bad, very bad. The pilots turned onto the final approach as they cut through the thick fog that enveloped smolensk. Suddenly the plane strikes a tree 3600 feet short of the runway they were too low and in deep trouble. The runway is at an elevation of 258 meters and the tree that they hit was at 233 meters, they were essentially below the elevation of the runway. 800 feet from the initial impact point, the left wing hit a tree , the damaged plane now started to bank to the left and before long the plane was inverted and it hit the ground. None of the plane's 96 occupants survived.
With every air crash, there an immense amount of pressure to figure out what happened, family members want answers, everyone wants answers but with this accident, the pressure to find out what went wrong was on another level. 
Наука
pilot: saves high rank member by landing at another airport
high ranks: fires them
pilot: how about i crash you instead
Actually, he should take more of the people from the government. He would be a national hero by sacrificing himself for that beautiful public service
You pretty much hit the nail on the head
@@iamgroot4080 he should have taken u for a flight
@@mikehunt7360 six thumbs up for I am Groot. maybe we should buy the ticket for you 😉
Pilot: no higher rank member, no issues.
Blame falls on whoever made the decision to punish the other pilot for diverting. You reap what you sow. Punish a pilot for being safe and you get unsafe pilots. Idiots.
There was once a 777 that landed in LHR but just short of the runway. Fuel icing issues were thought to be the reason but the pilot was (temporarily) ostracised by the industry for not having a perfect record! I would prefer to fly with a pilot who has presence of mind, equanimity and team leadership even if he crashed a 777 for technical reasons.
@@michaeltapley104 hardly even a crash
Exactly my thought.
so sad this story is a complete fake!
@@sillysad3198 What's your evidence that it's fake?
Moral of the story its better to take a 2 hour car ride after being diverted then exiting this world for ever.
Wait with the moral. We don't know how it will end yet. This movie is based solely on the words of the Russians. And the plane's wreckage is still kept in Russia (for over 10 years!) And Polish investigators still has no free access to the remains of the plane...
Kennedy: ah yes
The fact is: most known procedures were broken, including those still on the ground. It doesn't matter if this video was based on the Russian or the Polish report, because that much is clear.
And about the car ride: what also has to be take under consideration is that this memorial was supposed to be a part of the presidential election campaign - that's whybthe pressure was so high to land in Smolensk and not anywhere else. Being late meant, that the president couldn't show up on TV when everything was set exactly for that purpose.
Well actually planes are safer than cars lol
@@bidzej86
Don't lie, there was no pressure on the pilots. 4 major Polish laboratories examined CVR recordings and found nothing.
Only ONE black box was in Poland, the rest is "further investigated", "got lost", or has been destroyed !!!
To be honest there were 2 parts of this, one was the forcage of going to smolensk airport but another one was just how insanely the pilots scuffed the landing, navigator literally kept shouting attitude at them and saying how low it was but they just ignored it, Like rather fly over the airport than guess how close you are to it, they were literally advised to not go below a certain attitude and completely ignored it
the thing is that it was impossible without knowledge of terrain layout on this certain airport to do correct approach. beacuse of poor visibility they used altimeter. there is a valley right before it, altimeter showed data related to their current position so capt thought they're still good to go, then they approached end of valley getting closer to the ground faster than he anticipated. he also made a mistake of trying to go around in auto mode which is impossible on this airport. if only one of those two happened he might had a chance to react but together... there were way more things to go through here but i wanted to answer at least whan you said about
To understand what really happened , one must understand politics.
@@adrianniemiec8669 Russia missiles flew into Poland 🇵🇱 and killed two Poles 😳 Oh yah, it was confirmed to be to be Ukraine's missiles, but let us just ignore that and keep blaming Russia 🇷🇺 😉
The first pilot was blacklisted but at least he was alive.
And as such, he’s living proof that safety trumps expedience.
@@macioluko9484 Actually, the pilot "hanged himself" without leaving a note to his family. There were many misterious "accidents" and "suicides" after the President died. A coincidence?
@@michalkrezolek920 seriously?!!!! I never heard about it. So the more experienced pilot who did not fly that day later killed himself?
@@Sky10811
Hi. Give me your email, I'll sed the list to you, as YT is canceling my post.
@@Sky10811
Here you have, I menage to avoid YT algorithms, a list of some of this people:
1. 23 DEC 2009 G.Michniewicz, General director of the Prime Minister's office, a person with the highest status of access to classified information. He died on the same day when Tupolev returned to Poland from the renovation in Russia (sic !) at the Oleg Deripaska plant, where this Polish government plane was overhauled, several months, WITHOUT THE SUPERVISION OF POLISH SPECIAL SERVICES. According to the official version, he committed suicide by hanging himself on a vacuum cleaner cable in his office. Earlier that day he had bought X-mas gifts for his daughters, he did not leave a farewell letter.
2. 18 April 2010, Bishop M Cieślar, died in a car accident. He was to be the successor of Fr. Adam Pilch, acting as the Chief Chaplain of the Evangelical Polish Army, who died in Smolensk. He was to receive a text message from Fr. Adam Pilch, one of the Smolensk victims, A FEW MINUTES AFTER THE CRASH.
3. June 2, 2010 Krzysztof Knyż Moscow cameraman of "Fakty" TVN (Polish TV). The casual TVN messages spoke about the disease. The foreign press wrote that he was murdered in his own apartment. He was the operator who filmed the approach to the landing of the Polish presidential plane at the Smolensk airport. He was one of the first reporters to be found at the scene of the accident before Russian special forces forced his departure from the scene. Television materials from the first moments when it was not known what happened and just before the disaster - disappeared.
4. June 6, 2010 Prof. Marek Dulinicz Outstanding Polish archaeologist. He died in a car accident. Head of the archaeological team that was to leave for Smolensk in June. Dulinicz was the originator of the expedition and an active person in efforts to leave.
5. June 13, 2010 Sergey Tretyakov, former colonel of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. According to the first version given by his wife, he choked during a meal, the second version is a heart attack.
6. April 22, 2010. Fred Burton of Stratfor quoted the opinion of Sergei Tretyakov, who in an interview with him stated that: "The Russians deliberately prevented the plane from landing, knowing that the Polish president would either force the pilot to land, or the plane would turn back and not land on the spot." In this way, they would thwart the plans for the anniversary of the Katyn massacre. In response, another Stratfor analyst, Marko Papic, writes that this coincides with what "his sources" told him. Tretyakov also alleged that the Russians had various ready-made scenarios that could be pulled off the shelf if Putin wanted it.
7. October 15, 2010 Eugeniusz Wróbel. Minister in the government of Law and Justice. An expert on aviation matters. Specialist in computerized flight control systems for airplanes. A specialist in precise satellite navigation for aviation. He was missing on October 15. His dismembered body was fished out of the Rybnik Lagoon. He was murdered by his allegedly mentally ill son (Wróbel's wife is a psychiatrist and for 20 years she did not notice her son's illness). The unresponsive son initially pleaded guilty and then denied it. It is said that the insane son dismembered his father's body with a saw, but in the room - where it was supposed to take place - there are no traces of the gruesome act. Minister Wróbel said in private conversations that the wreck at the Smolensk-Siewiernyj airport is not the wreck of a Tupolev that the Polish delegation was supposed to fly with.
8. August 2011, General Konstantin Moriew. Head of the FSB (Russian Security Service) from Tver. Moriew, 53, died at the end of August 2011. The body was found in his office. As it was recognized, he shot himself with a service weapon. Although he did not leave a farewell letter, investigators accepted the version of the suicide. It was Moriew who interrogated the Smolensk inspectors after the crash. Moriew was assigned to Tver, which is the responsibility of the Severny airport in Smolensk, in 2007. Officers who were in the tower of the airport in Smolensk on April 10, 2010, Major Wiktor Ryżenko and Colonel Nikolai Krasnokutski, served on its premises.
9. December 2, 2011, Dariusz Szpineta, an expert, professional pilot and instructor, president of an airline company, was found dead (hanged) in the bathroom of a holiday resort in India. Earlier, he made several statements in the media regarding Smolensk, pointing out that the Tu-154M flight was a military flight. Szpineta challenged the Russians' claims about the flight status, pointing out that the TU-154M flight was a military flight.
10. June 16, 2012 General Sławomir Petelicki former commander of the special forces unit "Grom". He revealed, among other things, the issue of an SMS sent by Sikorski (Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2010) with instructions on the "official" version of the causes of the disaster. He also accused the then Prime Minister D. Tusk of contributing to the catastrophe and demanded to brought him before a state tribunal. According to the official version, he committed suicide. Gen. Petelicki, however, did not leave a farewell letter, he was not ill, he had no family or financial problems, and he did not leave a will. The experts did not find any traces of a violent defense on Petelicki's body, but they were unable to explain the origin of the single bruises around the knees and on the back. The fingerprint of General Sławomir Petelicki's left hand was found on the pistol (just one and not on the trigger)) from which the shot was fired, although he was right-handed. No fingerprints were found on the magazine or cartridges, and the garage where Petelicki's body was found did not include the place where the suicide was to take place.
11. October 27/28, 2012 ensign Remigiusz Muś, a Yak-40 on-board technician, who landed at the Smolensk airport on April 10, 2010, one hour before the TU-154 M crash. The prosecutor's office quickly announced that "the circumstances of the incident indicate suicide". Ensign Muś was an important witness in the Smolensk investigation. He claimed that after landing the Yak-40, he remained in the cockpit and heard the conversation between the TU-154M crew and the turret controller on the radio. In the conversation, the inspector was to allow the crew of the TU-154 M to descend to the "decision height" of 50 meters, at which the crew was to decide whether or not to land. This undermines the theories of Russian experts.
That's more less everybody we know.
I think it would be good to look at both reports just to have 100% of the information and to see how the reports differ and to make our own minds on which is the most accurate report
AGREED 🖖
the reports are indeed slightly different but not regarding the facts presented in the movie . the Polish report puts some of the responsibility on the ATC, the Russians make note that alcohol was detected in the chief commander's blood.
@@pawelsasor6444 I just think it would be a good idea for clarity
@@pawelsasor6444 it gets worse then on both sides
there is only one thing missing... facts and official information are different, place where plane struck the tree, place where they supposed to land and finally the crash site, it differs like couple of kilometers that makes no sense to me... there are videos from our famous youtuber "Hitchhiking To The End Of The World" - "TAJEMNICA SMOLEŃSKA" eng. secret of smoleńsk
This is the invariable, inevitable result of punishing people for following safety procedures
Yep
The investigation must be completed before the verdict is announced. For some reason, the remains of the plane are still (more than 10 years) kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles.
@@swietymikolajbb the russians are hiding somthing
Classic case of VIP syndrome. Reminds me of the Aaliyah plane crash where the pilot took off in an overweight plane only after considerable pressure from his famous passengers. And both crashes initially appeared very suspicious just based on the circumstances and people on board but investigations would prove they were genuine accidents.
Another case of VIP syndrome occurred in the mid-1030s, when the Spanish general who was the head of nationalist forces flew from Morocco to Spain. He insisted on taking 23 (?) pieces of luggage we him despite the pilot’s protests that this would overload the plane. As a result the plane crashed and the new leader became Franco.
Nobody cares about Aaliyah anymore.
@@rogerknights857 That would be José Sanjurjo in 1936. And his successor Emilio Mola died in a Smolensk-like crash, inadvisably flying in bad weather, a few months later.
@@simonbone
No, that's "classic syndrome" of blown up plane.
Here is an example (photo's from the wreck side), the cut of left wing of this Tupolev, which have as much to do with the cutting by a birch tree as Kamala Harris's dog.
www.salon24.pl/u/blogdoradcy/848690,jak-nadcinano-dzwigary-w-koncowce-skrzydla-w-smolensku-cz-1
@@simonbone
Sorry, but the bad wether in Smolensk, was only a cover for attempt.
Moral of the story, don't be a dick to pilots that are being safe, cost them their lives.
Agreed.. being president or prime minister (specially if you don't have any experience as a pilot) doesn't give you the authority to tell the pilots(who are clearly more experience and just doing their best to keep the passengers alive)
@@99mrpogi VIPs think they know more than anyone else and do not want to be inconvenienced, so they pushed these pilots to fly in unsafe conditions, that cost them their lives.
Don't feel bad for the President or Prime Minister, but do feel bad for the pilots and crew.
Polish president: get me to ground soon as possible!
Pilot: yes sir.
Nose dives plane into the ground
The Polish government failed massively in planning this trip.
Funny thing is the polish (along with some Russian dissidents) are actually somehow blaming the Russians for this tragedy 🤷♂️
@@lawrencehaguewood5857 well, since neither US citizens, nor US aircraft were involved in the incident, NTSB had no mandate/authority to investigate..
First, i am Polish living in Poland. It was sabotage, they killed them. It was well prepared. we All know this in Poland, I can't say more, sorry. this is not the end this tragic story yet.
@@lawrencehaguewood5857 ☝️ see what I mean.. delusional people.. like anyone in Russia gives a crap about some polish guy (temporary president), he (and Poland) posed such a “great threat” to Russia..
that the Russians had to apparently“eliminate” him, by manipulating the weather and (through telepathic powers.. using Yuri of course ) made the pilots (and those inside the plane commanding them) make idiotic decisions 🤷♂️🙈🤣
@Central Intelligence Agency yes.. and that’s why it was the polish government who were planning this trip.. (did you read and comprehend what he wrote??🤦♂️)
I mean considering the "cargo" of people it shouldn't have even attempted to land given the conditions. No idea why on earth you would place an under-experienced flight crew on such a flight in the first place. The crash is a conspiracy gold mine tbh.
And many conspiracy theories there were, believe you me
Pure incompetence, unfortunately.
... the fact that the delegation was going to Katyn Forrest for a Memorial service (WWII) ... ruclips.net/video/pJpjIW7XYhg/видео.html ...
Why it was attempted is explained in the video. Kaczynski blacklisted the captain who refused to land in Tibilisi. The captain of the Smolensk plane was the co pilot on the Tibilisi flight. He was scared to anger Kaczynski.
Plus those pilots weren't inexperienced in general, it's just that they were military pilots, not civilian.
9:23 someone in the cockpit reset the captain's altimeter to standard pressure.
That alone is the one thing that made the crash inevitable. Flying blind and don't know how high they are, the altimeter is miscalibrated.
Yeah, I thought that was odd. You set the altimeter for qfe (the airport pressure altitude) prior to landing as part of standard procedure in any aircraft.
Is it not weird that ATC responded that they didn’t know what the temperature was, and another one added: it’s cold. Doesn’t seem very professional…
Definitely want to see the Polish version.
@OwaSowa have you even been at the place where the plane supposed to land ? there are videos from our famous RUclipsr "Hitchhiking To The End Of The World" just search "smoleńsk". My theory is that we live in the nation that was built on the lies and blood.
@OwaSowa
Really, someone was showing the hot-dog model? !!! I must have missed that ! :-/
Nobody was showing hod-dog's pretending to be an aircraft model's. These were just examples mentioned during a lecture to illustrate to ignorant of physics, how internal pressure tears apart oval objects.
And here is an example, the cut of left wing of this Tupolev, which have as much to do with the cutting by a birch tree as Kamala Harris's (hot) dog.
www.salon24.pl/u/blogdoradcy/848690,jak-nadcinano-dzwigary-w-koncowce-skrzydla-w-smolensku-cz-1
@OwaSowa
Seriously ?! I linked a raw dokumentation from the wreckage, photographs of the broken wing, where only idiot could find a cutting of the brich tree.
You link a newspaper (Gazeta) that spread Russian lies and disinformation from the beginning.
@OwaSowa
As it exploded like can !!! But no one was making a models of hod-dogs !!! That's your GW-niane fake news.
Meghan, here you have a glimp on what happened with all the recorders related to this crash.
There was:
- 8 different versions of the recording, each of a different length from the recorder in the pilot's cabin, and the Polish side has not seen the original of this recorder/record.
- The record on the Russian KBN-1-1 quick access recorder, or rather its copy provided to the Polish side, did not contain the record of the last seconds of the flight, it was shorter than the parallel QAR-ATM record by 2 minutes.
- The Russians found QAR-ATM (Polish made black box) on April the 12th and held it until April 16, meanwhile, "mistakenly" sending another element to Warsaw as a replacement. Mr. Jajkowski from the ATM company swore that "it is not like that such records can be forged in a few minutes", but 4 days is not just a few minutes, but almost 6,000 minutes. Jajkowski, however, preferred not to touch it, as well as the fact that during the renovation in Samara (which was done by Putin's friend company !!!), the Russians had long and unlimited access to this device and that the QAR-ATM was in use in Russia on a regular basis, so it is not unknown there.
- The only recorder (KZ-63), the record of which cannot be manipulated, has not been "found" at all, DESPITE that its most important elements were found in the photos from the wreckage site.
- In the ONLY recorder that has never been in Russian's hands, from the Jak-40 (standing at the airport with recorder switched on), a wire/carrier broke during the interrogation in the Polish prosecutor's office and it was just before the disaster, and if we add a "broken" VCR from the tower, we have a full picture of the fake Putin and his trolls serve us ...
... if they had not been manipulated/cut, Polish investigators would have had access to them 10 years ago.
I like how you specify: "the plane was mechanically sound... at the time of impact", just in case someone thinks that the crashed plane is still airworthy.
no
It was to clarify that a bomb or other sabotage was not an issue. Sigh…stay in school.
🤦🏻
@@doriangray2020no.. it’s to confirm it was a CFIT, or controlled flight into terrain, i.e to clarify the plane was fully operational and in working order at the time of impact.
Getting fired because you landed at an alternate is disgusting.
TRUMP 2024
how about getting fired for disobeying orders?
@@zapasiewicz no son. Try again
@@bobdylan2843 try what again?
I asked you a question. If a soldier disobeys orders, is it a surprise he'd get fired?
@@zapasiewicz yes it is a suprise. you lose.
@@zapasiewicz during a flight no matter who’s onboard the cockpit crew should always have the command on what to do as they’re the ones that are trained for flying and evaluating e.g. the weather and visibility. If an airline pilot has to divert he won’t get fired and it’s the same with the crew on a military flight! They know how things work and no one should put himself above the crew, especially not in this situation!
Who put pressure on pilots deserve their fates, but poor pilots.
Hard to believe why people think they can risk their lives by pushing the pilots so hard?
Oh, they are politicians, then everything get explained.
No passenger should have access to the flight deck or be able to influence the captain and their decisions in any circumstances.
There's no such a evidence of pushing pilots to land.
@@marekmachay7450 Tell that to the other pilot who was blacklisted for refusing to land because of safety concerns.
@@jake_
So what ? If there's at least 20 pieces of evidence proofing that Tupolew was blown up.
The investigation must be completed before the verdict is announced. For some reason, the remains of the plane are still (more than 10 years) kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles.
Even though it's been over a decade and I was only 11 back then, I still have very vivid memories of this day. Confusion. Disbelief. Then grim realisation. It felt surreal. To this day it remains one of my strongest childhood memories.
ruclips.net/video/Me2WmQDoSZg/видео.html
Both reports pls. I was hoping for someone to pick up this crash and do a video on it so I was super happy to see this video :) Thanks for all the good work man
I think it was ultimately up to the pilot in command to make the decision to divert but I also think a huge amount of the blame should go to the government officials pressuring them so intensely and it's certainly understandable why a pilot would choose to go against their best instincts in that situation, especially the more inexperienced pilots.
Keep making these videos. You are articulate, concise, informative, technical, and entertaining. I appreciate wrapping things up in 10-15 minutes. Longer if necessary. You don't add a lot of extra talk about passenger x flying to Bolivia to see her mother. Thanks for that.
Feel great sympathy for the pilots and their families.
yup they will be wrongly abused
How about sympathy for everyone who was killed in this tragedy, and not just the pilots?
I'm confused if you mean the crash tragedy or the Katyn tragedy
I remember hearing about the crash on the radio. I was 13 and just had my first solo trip to a shopping centre. The flight was so poorly planned and so much pressures was put on the pilot. But omg the conspiracy theories about this crash in my country are beyond ridiculous
Yes, but this time for once the Russians are not to blame.
best lies are those which are beyond understanding a mix of few reports and nothing makes sense. Facts and official information are different, place where plane struck the tree, place where they supposed to land and finally the crash site, it differs like couple of kilometers that makes no sense to me... there are videos from our famous youtuber "Hitchhiking To The End Of The World" - "TAJEMNICA SMOLEŃSKA" eng. secret of smoleńsk.
@@duartesimoes508 The truth will be easier to find out when the Russians finally let them examine the wreckage properly. Despite the passage of more than ten years Poland still has NO FREE ACCESS to the remains of the plane. For some reason, the wreckage of the plane is still kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles. This film does not mention it.
Someone accused the Russians of creating the fog.....
temperature? -cold
altitude? -above ground
heading? -forward
sounds likes a flawd plan from the start and the general who puts on pressure makes me think he did desserve it.
it's unfortunate for the pilots
And for the rest of the unfortunate passengers, among whom were the families of people killed during a massacre to the memorial of which they were flying
I'm sure that the general being present made it worse, but it still may have happened if he had not been present since the pilots were aware of the other pilot who was essentially blacklisted for diverting (and I'd wager that many pilots flying cranky, elitist VIPs probably feel similar pressure, regardless of whether they allow it to affect their decisions). Hopefully, for future missions, their successors learned not to blacklist or scorn pilots who put safety first.
@@dmhendricksWell stated. Remember Aaliyah.
You are absolutely right. Incompetent people at power making executive, uninformed decisions (to delay the departure form 6 am proposed by the pilots to 8 am, that was further delayed by 90 minutes as the President could not make it at time) is a recipe for a disaster.
Sorry guys, but analyzes of recordings from the pilot's cabin, made by the three main Polish state research laboratories, did not show a sign of pressure from ANYONE. That film is a Russian disinformation.
My suspicion is that they were relying on the radar altimeter for terrain clearance. But the terrain on the approach is well below the runway. So while they were above the ground below, they were actually below the runway when they hit the tree. They were going to hit something else had they missed that tree.
For category 3 ILS approaches, minimum radar altitudes are shown at different points on the glideslope. Not supplied for NDB approaches.
When you descend below MDA (Minimum Descent Altitude) you're rolling the dice.
On an NDB approach you can break out only to find yourself half a mile or more off the runway centerline.
That is horrible, I am sorry for all of the families and loved ones of those who perished in this terrible tragedy.
It's also worth mentioning, that those were military pilots - so they would think more as a soldier (do your mission/execute your order), than as a pilot (land safely).
Really enjoy your work keeps getting better thanks
WTF were all involved thinking? There is a leitmotif of pressure and choosing the wrong people all over the place.
If I wanted someone killed in an accident, putting less experienced crew on board, overload the one pilot that speaks a smattering of Russian and have passengers and precedence that puts pilots under pressure …
It may not guarantee a kill, but it’ll happen sooner or later - and without proof of my involvement.
Just a case of being too sure that nothing can go wrong, without getting the full picture. And I am no speaking about the pilots. The pressure that came from "upstairs" is a major (if not the major) factor in this crash.
The Polish military pilots who flew this plane had adequate knowledge of Russian.
@@nikolaykrotov8673 yeah, saw this accident in several places and all say that only pilot had SOME knowledge of Russian. Yet this makes no sense, given atc only spoke Russian. How would you land the plane then? Or what if the pilot becomes incapacitated, how do you communicate with atc? Body language? Morse code with the landing lights? :D nah... Nonsense. Pretty sure pilots had good/decent command of Russian.
It's possible that the story presented in the video is false. This isn't the author's fault but the fault of politicians adjusting the investigation result so it fits their political agenda.
The official report is openly disputed by a number of factions, especially by the current Polish government and half of the Polish public.
@@ciprian7243 Russian and Polish languages are similar...
A side by side comparison of the reports would have been nice if possible as you went along. Thanks for doing these, nice job.
What comparsion if Poland insists it was a bomb?)
@@user-qn3uv1yc5c Poland insisted. There is another side to this.
@@TG-to3dv i speak only from video creating point of view - Poland version can be different only in last second of flight - bomb exploded and airplane crashed. all recordings and flight data before this moment is still existing and create same image of flight.
Great report! I was finally early for one of these since I had to wake up at 5:30 am lol
Awesome! Glad you actually made this video.
ruclips.net/video/Me2WmQDoSZg/видео.html
Pilots on a normal day: 🛫
Pilots when a famous person is on board:🛬🏔
LMAOOOO why did I laugh😭😭
May all passengers who we're on board rest in peace.
ruclips.net/video/Me2WmQDoSZg/видео.html
I enjoy your videos. I have learned so much about planes and procedures. Keep up the good work. T hank you.
ruclips.net/video/Me2WmQDoSZg/видео.html
The pilots thought it was better to die than to be blamed for bad weather. A terminally severe "I told you so".
I am an ex Boeing 737 Captain and I live in Poland and have read all(380 pages?) of the English version of the Polish accident report.
There were some facts that the commentator presented from his reading of the Russian report which I do not recall from the Polish report.
That aside, it is a obvious conclusion that the crew did descend below the minimum approach altitude/height for that approach.
There are factors that my have lead to that decision- crew composition, training, military background, diplomatic pressure etc., but the main cause was the decision to fly below that altitude/height. Maybe a good reason to use QFE (Height) rather than QNH (altitude) but that is another discussion.
Descent below minimum altitude was the major cause of the crash.
Geoff
How the military background of the pilots could influence this tragedy?
@@Sky10811 trained their whole adult life to follow stupid orders
Everything done in a very Polish way, which is: "we'll manage somehow". Well, not this time.
Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏼
Thank you for the detailed explanation
Good Sunday morning! I'm so early that... I'M EARLY!
I'm kinda bummed I can't watch this right now. Really excited!
Great video!
You got a good Airplane ✈ channel brother
That really sucks about the pilot who diverted for safety.
It obviously weighed on this pilot's mind and certainly played a role. They may have avoided this otherwise
The captain of the accident plane actually was the first officer on that flight to Tbilisi that was diverted, so he saw his captain being fired for playing it safe, when the president protocols chief and the Polish Air Force commander visited the cockpit, he repeatedly told them that they didn't have landing conditions.
Also the controllers who normally should have had the authority to deny the plane to land, didn't have the authority that day as it was a presidential aircraft and denying it permission to land was not in their hands so they instead told the pilots repeatedly that the airport didn't have landing conditions and helplessly watched as the plane continued it's approach.
Honestly if Kaszinckiy (hope I spelled that right) didn't want to visit Belarus, they could have continued to Moscow and could have taken a helicopter to Smolensk afterwards.
Can you do airfrance 8969? It’s more of a hijacking though
My wife is polish and she just told me about this story. I have no knowledge of planes or flying I just searched for this topic and found this video. Your video was very interesting, thank you for making it
Please make a video about difference between the two reports
Could you also cover the polish report, please? Would be great!
The investigation was done by both Polish and Russians.
@kevin hovind Dude. They even found the cockpit recordings. You think they were fake?
@@asdf3568
Just as a reminder, the entire Russian investigation was based on these recordings witch Poles have never seen, Russians gave them only electronic copys. Furthermore the Russians destroyed the wreckage and the wreckage site with bulldozers on the second day after the crash !!!
@@marekmachay7450 Yeah no doubt. You don't see recordings. You listen to them. Are you saying all you have are transcripts?
@@asdf3568
But one can see black boxes, right ?
There were 6 recorders in Smolensk, 5 of them were stolen, hidden, lost, broken, ... only one was sent to Poland after being held for 4 days in Russia.
And there was EIGHT different (in terms of content and length) copies of "your" cockpit recordings send by Russians to Poland !!!
Do you think they were real ?!
Why did i have a feeling that this video migh be release someday.
Another excellent video mate 👍
Nice video
It is a captain where the buck stops. Even under circumstances such as this.
easier said
the bastards that politicians and people in power are, often one continues to rot.. than to raise voice
Yeah I agree sometimes u need to close the door and act professional under 10k feet... consequences be damned. If unsure they should have started holding or diverted... the 4 stars would be mad but a shouting match on the ground is far better than death
J Z That’s right, it’s called having a “ sterile cockpit” you don’t let any non-pilot related crew into the cockpit during takeoff & landings , all pilots & flight engineers only and you talk only about the task ahead of you.
It's easy to say that, but when you have a 4 star general sitting over your shoulder, you can be easily thrown off. This accident would have likely not have happened had the Air Force CIC not been on the flight deck.
The pilots definitely should have backed out, but if you fire and discipline inexperienced pilots for being safe, you're eventually going to cause a crash. This particular crash could have been prevented by the pilots, but this workplace culture was inevitably going to get people killed.
I would like to see the polish version. Just curious!
I've read it whole so here are some differencies:
The biggest one is giving some responsibility to the controllers, who were confirming the crew, that the plane is "on the glide" multiple times, when it obviously wasn't.
Also about flight preparation - Polish Presidental Office received outdated/unprecise maps and airfield documentation from Russians.
One more thing which should be mentioned in the movie (and probably is in a russian report): to "catch" the glide slope, when the plane was to high, the pilots went idle on all engines. It's violenting approach procedures. A need of doing that on short final should result in an immediate go-around.
@@sirgryzli6284 Whoa... Well, then we would like to have a direct comparison of the two reports... Just like he did for the Tenerife Report
Polish version the was a bomb
@@borisdoris314 it is Polish conspiracy theory version... I am talking about official Polish report from PKBWL - institution like american NTSB.
@@sirgryzli6284 but of course it's a polish conspiracy and main part of it to keep wreckage with black boxes of the plane away from polish investigators , it happens over 10 years ago and it's still in Russia , hilarious
I remember that day well, we had a family trip to Athens, we were returning back to Larnaca that late evening... we were packing our suitcases when we listened to that tragedy...
Wow, these videos are addictive...
After watching a ton of your videos and other aviation disaster documentaries, it’s kinda crazy just how many aviation disasters are caused by shitty upper level management.
Best comment!
Yo. When an Il-76 goes around and diverts before you, forget shooting the approach.
When a Russian pilots says it's bad. It's bad
Please do the Polish report. I just subscribed, so I look forward to seeing it.
You mean the lies by his equally incompetent brother
This is the Polish report. The only way it differs from the joint report is who's to blame.
It would be great to have both views on both reports. Its hard to know accuracy and which is correct when you have two differing things that only has a bit of change. In cases such as these where there may be things like biases (from their views and the people doing the report and how competent they are) its hard to know which is good and which is not.
the polish report if i remember correctly just blames the airport for everything while the russian one is likely the most accurate.
@@sirmonkey1985 How can you be sure which one is more accurate?
Whether you are carrying a king or a commoner, the ultimate responsibility for the safety of an aircraft is the Captains
Awesome video! It sounds to me that the government did a horrible job at planning this trip.
Important mention to be made: the PIC was the copilot o the flight where the pilot did a go around and was later blacklisted. That certainly put massive pressure on the PIC to land.
Yes please do a version based on polish report as well!
How come you conspiracy nuts always makes this exact comment?
@@asdf3568 why would you assume I believe in this conspiracy theory? I don't. I just would like a video about it
@@morozowski89 Video about what? This is info is from the official report carried out by investigators of both countries. It includes the cockpit voice recording that proves there's no conspiracy.
@@asdf3568 Russian report is not trustworthy in any way, especially when their plane crashed on their teritory.
@@mrpiszczaka8249 They had crash investigators from both countries. As is standard.
Yes, I would like to hear what the other side has to report!
The only differences between the reports are the conclusions to the cause of the accident. The Polish report looks to shift some blame to the Russians for not giving them up to date maps and for the ATC allowing them to think they were safely on the glide slope.
@@Pete856
You forgot to add that they look the same, because the Polish (first) commission actually limited itself only to translating the Russian report.
There is a second commission, set up by the opposition at the time, to challenge this Russian nonsense.
@@marekmachay7450 cyring. The second "commision" has been working for 6? 8? years now and they managed to produce one videoclip of engineering professor dropping 50cm piece of plywood from waist height on the sidewalk as a "proof" of plane wing aerodynamics and unsubsantiated claims of a bomb explosion.
It's sad that even after all those years people can't accept that this was a major human fuckup, on all levels of the government and military, from planning to execution, from president to flight engineer.
The only nonsense conspiracy here is the belief that there was a Russion conspiracy.
@@gloowacz
Really ?! They dropped a board on the floor and found out that bomb exploded on the Tupolev's deck ?! :-/
Or maybe they drop this board on your head ?!
What garbage did they find you in ?
@@marekmachay7450 Yes that is exactly what they presented. They've recently upgraded to a wooden model of the wing that doesn't take the simplest physics into account - for example fuel slosh inside ruptured wing structure. But of course that is enought to say that the wing was blown off by a bomb (no explosives found) and that the previous government and Putin were behind it.
Sad to watch really, how otherwise intelligent people like Macierewicz or Rońda make complete clowns of themselves to push silly ideological narrative.
Imagine being fired because you saved your boss’s life
Blame has to fall on the flight crew. Now i am a pilot too (albeit a first officer),so when conditions like these do appear in front of you,then as the captain of the flight,you have to divert...what happens next may be out of your hand,but atleast they could have lived. Being scared of some important people eventually led to the death of so many,which could so easily have been averted
Donations can be scary and lethal
You could make a short follow-up video looking at the differences between the reports!
They were going to a memorial, not knowing that they would be in another memorial...
RIP
C.I.C. Polish Airforce: "Land at this airport or be blacklisted"
Pilots: "So we have chosen death"
Prior to reaching its verdict let the investigation to be finished. For some reason, the remains of the plane are still (after more than 10 years) kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles.
6:48 so in essence they took off without any redundancy. Incapacitation of the captain would have doomed this plane easily, no chain of circumstances required.
Hard to believe how low the requirements were set for transport of the President: No sufficient communication capabilities, no recent experience flying the route, little experience flying the plane, no proper decisions based on the available reports, no proper equipment on the destination airport, that bad temper of superiors (essentially producing bad CRM)... this would be highly irregular for any normal airline flight. I'm tempted to say the superiors got what they asked for, but I'm really sorry for those crew members that tried to do everything right and followed proper procedures, the 2nd and 3rd officer in particular.
Please do a video on the polish view point/report!
How curious that a relatively inexperienced crew was assigned to a presidential flight. One would imagine it would be just the opposite.
Did he mention exprince on other planes or just on type? In goverment/military, you can end up in a situation where the pilots are very expirenced, but not on type and a mismatch of military rank/expirience, on type expirience, age etc. resulting in unclear line of command.
If gov tells that they didn't hire experts because experts didn't wan't to preceded with gov ideas you get answers to that question
@@aaaaaaaaaaaaaa44444 Sounds more like an assassination than an accident
Maybe lack of experience wasn't related. The truth will be easier to find out when the Russians finally let them examine the wreckage properly. Despite the passage of more than ten years Poland still has NO FREE ACCESS to the remains of the plane. For some strange reason, the wreckage of the plane is still kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles.
It all boils down to culture: having power allows you to bend rules - and to push other people to bend rules. It went all the way from the president, to the chief of the air force, down to the captain and further down to the co-pilot, engineer and navigator. This works most of the time and fails in seldom cases. When bending the rules results in negative outcome, those people will say that it is the fault of some external factor, for example weather or an air traffic controller that allowed them to bend the rules in the first place. But in the end, it is the culture that prevails.
Obviously the blame lies with the Captain. The captain is ALWAYS responsible for the safety of his aircraft no matter what mistakes anyone else makes.
It's always easy to second guess pilots later on after an accident, but the idea that anyone on that crew would just reset the altimeter to standard pressure while making a manual landing at an unfamiliar airport in extremely low visibility is ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!
I would love to watch a video of the Polish side. Also, do you have a way to accommodate donations?
tl;dr at the bottom
The Polish report was essentially the same. The only difference was that Russian report did not find any blame in Smolensk ATC, while Polish report stated the miscommunication (due to lack of experience of Russian army Air Traffic Controllers) was a contributing factor.
However, there is a plot twist. After PiS (with the late President's twin brother as a leader) got to power, wining the election spreading some crazy conspiracy theories about the deliberate destruction of the airplane and shooting the survivors dead, the official report was withdrawn. The government created a committee to „investigate the Smolensk disaster", with exactly 0 people having any experience with aviation accident investigations. Until now the official stance of Polish government is that 2 or 3 bombs exploded in the plane during the final approach, the plane hit the armored birch tree that caused the airframe to cartwheel and desintegrate, and it was a plot to kill the President. There were official press conferences, during which the head of this committee provided 'evidence of the attack' using hot-dogs (I am not kidding you!). The official report ('The Smolensk Sub-committee Report' or 'Raport podkomisji smoleńskiej' in Polish - according to the head of the committee - has already been prepared, but for undisclosed reasons have not been published.
tl;dr: No 'Polish side' video, as the official Polish side stance is a ridiculous conspiracy theory
@@gallanonim9686 The truth will be easier to find out when the Russians finally let them examine the wreckage properly. Despite the passage of more than ten years Poland still has NO FREE ACCESS to the remains of the plane. For some reason, the remains of the plane are still (more than 10 years) kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles. This film does not mention it.
You really oughta do the polish version, this is a crash that DOES involve a president/government members, even more so in a foreign country. I'd love to hear their side.
it would love to get more background on the flight crew. I would assume that they had more military expirince then on type expirience and that military rank played a role in the line off command.
Both sides have their own incentives and biases to arrive at a certain conclusion, but the polish one seems a bit stronger here. For the russian side, they would want the report to show that the fault does not lie with ATC and that this was indeed an accident and not something conspiratorial. For the polish side, they would want the report to absolve their government and officials of incompetence and wrongdoing as much as possible. Politically, it's not a good look to lose your own president through negligence. You'd want to show that it was all or mostly external factors.
There was a movie made by Discovery channel on this topic. Good to watch!
@@gorylatko it's risky to make a film about a plane crash before explaining the causes. the wreck has still been inaccessible for over ten years. too early to express any opinions, isn't it? the truth will be easier to find out when the Russians finally let them examine the wreckage properly. despite the passage of more than ten years Poland still has NO FREE ACCESS to the remains of the plane. for some reason, the wreckage of the plane is still kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles. the movie does not mention it.
@@swietymikolajbb hint: the wreckage was examined immediately after the crash! Duh. Stop repeating idiotic statements which are only designed to inflame relations between Polish people. Even a child knows that if the wreck was sitting on "enemy" territory in the open air for 11 years it's worthless! The remains of the Tupolew should be junked.
When I researched this recently the Russian report was heavily criticised I thought. The Polish side claimed the Russians weren't giving them access to everything too.
Yep, the Russians keeping the wreckage for over 10 years, making it difficult for investigators to access it 🤮
The blame falls on whoever the hell reset altimeter pressure and everyone who tried a blind approach without triple checking.
@ mini crash investigation, when is the Emirates aircraft crash (Dubai) investigation video will be done, or did I miss it.
They had a wind shield
I'm confused by some of the details: You speak of their position on the glideslope and in relation to the ILS system, but you also say this was an NDB approach. If it's an NDB approach, there is no glideslope, because that's a non-precision approach. However, you refer to the approach as a precision approach.
So, I end up confused: ILS or NDB? Precision approach or not?
There was no ILS system, of that I am sure.
@@MichaTerajewicz Thank you. I can see that now.
From the translation of the Polish government report on the accident: "The SMOLENSK SEVERNY airdrome was not equipped with the ILS system,which prevented the use of the ABSU operation mode, in which the aircraft position descending on the glide path is adjusted automatically with the use of signals proportional to the angular deviation from the path."
Really interesting video, as usual. Pilots have told me that flying a VIP is always a problem. Mr Big likes a pilot that says "Damn the weather, I'll get us in there!" One suggestion: I think you should use either metric or English measurement, but not both. Since this was in an area that uses metric, stick with metric.
What flight simulator program do you use to do your videos ?
I think its fsx
Microsoft flight simulator 2004
I'm from Poland, and in my opinion - to many important people in one place, the crew was ordered to land, very bad weather = to many mistakes
2:36 Should be Viciebsk or Vitebsk, in Belarus. Which, had it been open and assuming they'd had ground transport available immediately, would have added at most an hour to their trip.
1 hour or the whole life - choose one
True, i think officers were pushed to land.
Weird, I thought you would put your best and most experienced pilots to ferry a president somewhere, or am I missing something here?
4:12 sounds to me like 2200 hours and 1400 hours is plenty of time. How many hours do you expect? The navigator is a bit low, but simulator hours don't count towards those. There is no way to build up those hours without actually flying. And you can't get TU-154 hours by flying a cessna.
Thank you for the excellent video.
A complete and utter lack of professionalism on all levels.
Let's see the polish version.
Thanks for the info..👍
My God. You conspiracy nuts are relentless. Are you all following the same script? Airplane investigations are done by both sides.
@@asdf3568 hes talking about the end reports they came to
Yes. I would like it if you took a look at the POV from the polish perspective.
Remember as the pilot, *YOUR THE BOSS.*
Since you are the one flying after all.
I love to see another video of the polish report, it very interesting to check de different versions of the same accident (was very interesting the two versions of Tenerife airport disaster)
Unfortunately Polish investigators still (after over 10 years!!) has NO FREE ACCESS to plane's remainings.. For some reason, the remains of the plane are still (more than 10 years) kept in Russia and they are afraid to give it back to the Poles.
@@swietymikolajbb - I very much doubt the Russian government is "afraid". The fact of the matter is that the controversy and conspiracy theories surrounding the crash have made a martyr of President Kaczyński and increased support for his party and hardline views in the years since - this causes problems for the EU, which suits Putin's agenda just fine.
Consider this - if the wreckage were released and provided evidence of sabotage, how could the Polish government leverage that in any meaningful way against Russia - given that Putin's intelligence service has been murdering (and attempting to murder) dissidents in exile for decades with no significant consequence? I would be willing to bet significantly that if the wreckage was to be turned over there would be no evidence of sabotage whatsoever, discrediting the conspiracy theories and supporting the claim that the flight crew were pressured into an unsafe approach by the political/military delegation so as not to lose face in front of the Russians.
However, the knock-on effect of that would be to risk tarnishing the reputation of President Kaczyński in the eyes of the Polish people and potentially eroding support for the hardline movement he represented - a movement Putin is counting on to cause unrest in Poland and destabilise the political consensus within the EU - in other words it would do more harm to Putin's goals to release the wreckage and have the Russian report proven correct than it would to withhold it and maintain the mystery.
Both reports please!:-) 🖖
@OwaSowa This report has been officially pronounced incorrect and a new one was to be published by "Podkomisja Smoleńska". The new report is ready but has - for undisclosed reasons - never been published.
You can find some most recent info (February 2021) in Polish here:
wyborcza.pl/7,82983,26680197,ile-kosztowala-podkomisja-smolenska-w-2020-roku-wiceszef.html
@@gallanonim9686 irony is the new report overrides professional investigators in exactly the same way pilot decision to divert was overrided... by political need.
Great videos bro 👍🇬🇧
This another one of those incidents where external pressure is being put on the pilots. You would think that flying the plane would be enough pressure, but apparently not.
Please do a video based on the Polish investigation.
@OwaSowa , Polish report was nothing like the Russian one. It in fact blamed Russia for shooting the plane down and denying anyone access to the wreckage.
And some still blame some kind of explosion.. yeah, it's the explosion of stupidity of all those people entering the flight deck through the flight.
Definitely would like you to do an analysis and compare on the Polish version if you consider there are any significant diferences. Pretty please?
Could you compare the differences in conclusions and implications between the Russian and Polish report?