POLISH PLANE CRASH: HEAVY FOG, PUZZLING PILOT BEHAVIOR

According to Accu Weather Reports out of State College, PA., the plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and nearly one hundred top Polish officials likely did encounter very troubling weather as it attempted to land in Smolensk, Russia to commemorate the anniversary of the Katyn Massacre in which more than 20,000 Polish officials were murdered at the hands of Stalin's secret police. Tragic irony indeed.

Via GTR News:

AccuWeather.com reports weather likely played a significant role in the plane crash that killed Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski on Saturday morning. Accuweather.com meteorologists studied the weather closely at the time of the crash in Smolensk, Russia, and indications show that very dense fog was present before the plane went down.

It's established that the weather was quite bad, though wind was not a factor - just fog. Puzzling, however, are reports that the pilot made four landing attempts at the Smolensk airport - the final attempt ending with the crash - despite both the airport being closed before the attempted landings as well as requests made to the pilot by the tower to land elsewhere, either Minsk or Moscow.

According to the news agency Interfax, the Smolensk Airport was closed due to the thick fog and poor visibility before the crash. The pilot was instructed to land at either Minsk to the west or Moscow to the east. The plane crashed after the pilot’s fourth attempt to land at the closed airport.

This all begs a very logical question: Why would the pilot of a plane carrying so many high ranking Polish officials, including that country's president be so obstinate about landing at a closed airport and by extension, so reckless with such important passengers?

We're told that the black boxes have been retrieved. It would seem to me that with the extremely tragic irony surrounding this horrific event, Vladimir Putin should be 100% transparent about this investigation. Color me skeptical.

h/t to Astute Bloggers