The TU-154, which crashed outside Smolensk, Russia, was on its fourth attempt to land amid heavy fog

"...The TU-154, which crashed outside Smolensk, Russia, was on its fourth attempt to land amid heavy fog. ...."


"....Russian media reported that the airplane's pilot ignored warnings to abort his landing outside of Smolensk and land instead in Minsk or Moscow. The jet crashed about a kilometer short of the runway ...."



* Saturday, April 10, 2010 As of 7:37 PM (GMT +4 hours)

Investigators Focus on Tupolev 154 Jetliner

By IRA IOSEBASHVILI and DANIEL MICHAELS

Investigators seeking the cause of a plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kasczinski, his wife and a delegation including dozens of high-level officials on Saturday are likely to focus on both the Tupolev 154 jetliner and the pilots' actions.

The Russian-made plane, although 20 years old, had been overhauled in December at a Russian aviation facility and had flown relatively few hours.

The TU-154, which crashed outside Smolensk, Russia, was on its fourth attempt to land amid heavy fog. Several major crashes over recent years have occurred when pilots lost full awareness of their situation after repeated attempts to land, so investigators will seek to understand why the crew tried bring the plane down in such unfavorable conditions.

Russian special services secured the area after a Polish government plane crashed near the airport in

Russian media reported that the airplane's pilot ignored warnings to abort his landing outside of Smolensk and land instead in Minsk or Moscow. The jet crashed about a kilometer short of the runway at the Smolensk-Severnyi military airport, shortly before 11 a.m. Moscow time.

The airport lacks modern radio-navigation systems that help guide planes in poor visibility, according to the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita.

Polish media reported Saturday that the crew had reported problems before trying to land, although the reports weren't officially confirmed. If correct, the issue is likely to become central to the investigation.

The Tupolev was operated by the Polish Air Force. LOT Polish Airlines, the country's state-owned commercial carrier, replaced all its Soviet-made jetliners – including TU-154s – in the 1990s.

During the presidential plane's overhaul in December, its engines underwent thorough maintenance, and the craft's interior was completely refitted and modernized, said Alexei Gusev, director of Aviakor, an aircraft plant outside of Samara.

"The plane flew fine, there were no complaints about it," Mr. Gusev said. "I remember the pilots who test-flew it after the overhaul and there were happy with its performance."

The aircraft had logged roughly 5000 hours of flying time in around 1800 flights, Mr. Gusev said. "This is not a lot at all for this airplane. As a rule, airplanes serving top officials do not see many hours of usage," he said.

Designed Soviet engineers and first flown in 1968, the TU-154 has seen heavy use in Russia and other former Soviet countries. More than 920 of the three-engine plane have been built, although production slowed sharply after the end of the Soviet Union due to economic problems there and the plane's high operating costs. Its engines consume significantly more fuel than similar-sized Western-built jetliners and require far more maintenance.

Still, the aircraft is extremely hardy. It is designed to operate off of gravel and packed earth air fields and resist the extreme cold often found in Russia's northern climes. Aeroflot, Russia's state airline, announced the retirement of its TU-154 fleet at the start of this year.

The airplane had also served Poland's two previous presidents, Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski. In 2008, the airplane was delayed in Ulan Bator airport for two days when its steering mechanism broke down.

Last June, an Iranian TU-154 crashed in the country's northwest, killing all 168 people on board. A Russian TU-154 also went down near Donetsk, Ukraine in August 2006, killing 170.

Poland has suffered several air crashes involving top officials and Soviet-built aircraft, which the country was forced to use until breaking free of Soviet domination in 1989. In 2003, then-prime minister Leszek Miller was seriously injured when his Russian Mi-8 helicopter crashed.

In March 1980, a Soviet-built Ilyushin-62 passenger jet operated by LOT and flying from New York crashed on landing in Warsaw, killing all 87 people onboard.

And in an accident many Poles are likely to see as a parallel to Saturday's crash, Poland's prime minister-in-exile and leader of Western-oriented Polish forces in World War II, General Wladyslaw Sikorski – a figure admired by followers of late President Kaczynski – died when his U.S.-made B-24 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on a flight from Gibraltar to London.

Write to Daniel Michaels at daniel.michaels@wsj.com

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