Lech Kaczynski’s plane was in a
shabby condition – and its fog landing software
‘had not been updated’

Rumours were circulating in Russia and Poland tonight that the Tupolev 154 aircraft carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski was using a terrain detecting system (TAWS) that hadn’t been updated for some time.

The Polish media are abuzz once again, talking about the dilapidated state of the aircraft used by the Presidential administration. Three times in the last two years, a Presidential retinue had to switch at the last minute to scheduled flights, due to technical malfunction.

Although the ill-fated plane had been equipped with the terrain awareness and warning system made by Universal Avionics Systems of Tucson, Universal Avionics have stressed in their online product details for many years that the system’s software must be regularly updated. As long ago as 2006, the company stated that

‘…in the past year there were over 6,300 airport runways changes, additions and deletions worldwide. Additionally, premature descent alerts will not be available if the airport is not in the database…..’

On 24 April 2010 The Russian Interstate Aviation Committee confirmed that the TAWS system on President Kaczynski‘s was turned on. But was it au fait with changes to the airport landing circumstances?

The Russian investigation also confirmed that crew were repeatedly warned about poor weather. And today, official Russian reports have emerged showing that non-crew members can be heard in the cockpit on the black-box recorder.

There is an obvious conclusion to be drawn from this: that there was, to say the least, a cavalier attitude to formality, safety and security on Polish government flights. Or – just maybe – this is what the Russian authorities would like us to believe.

There is also another real possibility – Polish Prime Minister Tusk has a track-record of being niggardly about Government expenditure. In October 2008, Kaczynski had to book a charter for Brussels, because the Tusk administration refused the President his right to use the plane to attend an EU summit.