Unit disbanded after crash: no more Polish Airforce VIP flts

[Stratofreighter]

http://news.aviation-safety.net/2011/08 ... ial-crash/

Poland disbands air transport unit of air force following Presidential crash

Poland’s government disbanded an air force regiment and fired some high-ranking officers as a consquence of findings in a Polish investigation into the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

The 36th Special Regiment of Aviation Transport was a special aviation regiment of the Polish Air Force established in 1945.

All of its aircraft were for national public use, the most important being transport of Polish politicians, officials and forces commanders.

The Polish investigation concluded that:

The immediate cause of the accident was the descent below the minimum descent altitude at an excessive rate of descent in weather conditions which prevented visual contact with the ground, as well as a delayed execution of the go-around procedure.

Those circumstances led to an impact on a terrain obstacle resulting in separation of a part of the left wing with aileron and consequently to the loss of aircraft control and eventual ground impact.

Relating to the 36th Special Regiment, the report concludes:

incorrect training of the Tu-154M flight crews in the 36 Regiment;

ineffective immediate supervision of the 36 Regiment’s flight training process by the Air Force Command;
failure by the 36 Regiment to develop procedures governing the crew’s actions in the event of:

a) failure to meet the established approach criteria;

b) using radio altimeter for establishing alarm altitude values for various types of approach;

c) distribution of duties in a multi-crew flight.

These findings prompted the decision to disband the regiment. Government flights will now be handled by Poland’s national commercial airline, LOT.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 19:17 and is filed under Investigation Reports.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36th_Speci ... n_Regiment

In Polish:
http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/36-pulk- ... omosc.html
and
http://www.rmf24.pl/fakty/polska/news-s ... nId,353110

In Czech:
http://zahranicni.eurozpravy.cz/eu/3192 ... -smolensk/

[SquAdmin]

So... the Yaks, Hips and Sokols will be transferred to LOT or will they be up for sale? (I suspect the latter although it won't be easy to sell this old stuff)

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.wbj.pl/article-57484-air-reg ... ml?typ=ise

http://www.key.aero/view_news.asp?ID=47 ... n=military

Polish Air Force VIP Unit Formally Disbanded

The Polish Air Force's VIP unit, the 36th Special Air Transport Regiment, was formally disbanded on January 3 in a ceremony at Warsaw Airport.

A FORMAL ceremony was held at Warsaw Okecie Airport, Poland, on January 3 to mark the official disbandment of the Polish Air Force’s VIP transport unit, the 36th Specjalnego Pułku Lotnictwa Transportowego (SPLT – Special Air Transport Regiment) ‘Obrońców Warszawy’.

The official report into the crash cited poor pilot training, bad weather and faulty instructions from Russian air traffic controllers as factors in the accident.

As the report put most of the blame on Polish officials and procedures, this led to the resignation of Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich on July 28, 2011.

His newly-appointed replacement also announced that three generals and ten other officers responsible for training of Air Force pilots were being dismissed from service.

The 36 SPLT had originally been formed in 1945.

In addition to Tu-154Ms, the unit’s complement includes Embraer 175s, PZL M28B Bryza PT/CDs and Yak-40s, plus Bell 412EP, Mi-8P/S/T and W-3P/T Sokol helicopters.

Since the announcement last August, government VIPs have been flown by national commercial airline LOT.