10-04-2010, 08:33 PM
Carsten Wiethoff Wrote:Charles Drago Wrote:There were two airports with in-alignment runways no more than a kilometer apart.The polish plane attempted to land four times on the northern airport, which is Smolensk airbase.
From Wikipedia:
Smolensk Military (Russian военный аэродром "Смоленск-Северный", military aerodrome Smolensk-North) is an air base in Smolensk Oblast, Russia located 4 km north of Smolensk. It is a small mixed-use airfield with a remote revetment area with 8 pads and a Yakovlev factory at the southeast side of the airfield. It has 28 based Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft.
During the Cold War it was home to the 401 IAP (401st Interceptor Aviation Regiment) flying MiG-23P aircraft, which disbanded around 1990 with its MiG-23Ps assigned to 412 IAP at Dombarovsky. It has also been home to 871 IAP (871st Interceptor Aviation Regiment) flying MiG-23 and Su-27 aircraft in 1994, then MiG-29 aircraft in 2003. Airlift services are provided by 103 Gv VTAP (103rd Guards Military Air Transport Regiment) flying Ilyushin Il-76 jets.
The crew was warned of bad weather conditions (dense fog), but tried to land nonetheless, crashing at the fourth attempt after aborting three times. The airport does not have an instrument landing system (ILS).
Kinda sounds like the JFK Jr. official explanation: foggy weather, bad visibility, pilot error/inexperience... 'Cept that the weather and visibility at Martha's Vineyard was fine that day. Wonder what the weather was actually like in western Russia.