President is dead

[Ecofarm]

Serb might be right (#17)...

Pilot error has been blamed for the tragedy after it emerged he turned down the opportunity to land at an alternative runway in thick fog. Witnesses said the pilot made three or four attempts to land before crashing into woodland nearby...

Where's the alternative runway? Are we to believe the pilot was beligerant in his ability to dangerously land the craft, and he had the final decision after 3-4 (probably well-felt) attempts? Noone with more rank said "wtf" after a couple tries? Who was technically in command of the aircraft?

I'm hearing something like "well, I might not look good shirtless with a river/horse or have balls of steel, but we are putting this bird down right now".

[SlowwHand]

I really don't see a president making the decision over a "trained" pilot.

[Winston]

I really don't see a president making the decision over a "trained" pilot.

According to reports I saw, this president already did so on another occasion a couple of years back.

[Ecofarm]

I see the president, after 3 or 4 failed landing attempts, saying "WTF" and having rank on any landing decision. After 3 or 4 (probably obvious to everyone onboard) tries, how can we blame the pilot with bigger brass present.

[Heresson]

Where's the alternative runway?

They were told to land in Minsk, Belarus.

I am afraid it's possible the president told the pilot to land there and now. I'd rather it wasn't so, because this would be such a dumb thing to do.

Perhaps they had to land there, because they had little fuel left, or something was wrong... I don't know.

Anyway, it's a tragedy not (only) because of the president, but because of dozens other important people who died on this occasion.

May they rest in peace.

[SlowwHand]

If he made the decision, I feel much worse for everyone else than I do him. That would be just so stupid. I know how some people are though, overriding an expert in a given field; usually to poor result. As in, plane crash.

[Ecofarm]

I imagine the pilot is even obligated to notify the president (or another ranking officer) of the situation, and there was apparently no emergency requiring him to make the decision.

If it is pilot error, it is because he didn't give a sitrep (and noone else was paying attention to multiple failed landing attempts). I find it hard to believe that the president had a daredevil pilot. They're ****ting on the little guy.


Noone told that private to charge death-hill for a fourth time.

Yea, ok. He just did it cause he felt like it.

[SlowwHand]

How could a person miss even one failed landing attempt? Even in thick fog, you would have the sensation of down, up and turn.

[Ecofarm]

If I'm president, one bank and I'm WTF. They knew and they had rank.

[SlowwHand]

But you don't know if he ordered the attempts or was ignored or what. No one knows yet.

[Ecofarm]

I think "crazy pilot flying airforce-one" is not Occam's Razor. Did he lock the cockpit door, put his fingers in his ears, and go "lalalala" while passengers including the president (and presumably a co-pilot) said WTF? And he's like "fk this, Ima land this b1tch right here". Really? That's what happened? I think probably not.

I think it is far more obvious that someone else made a bad decision.



ps. The president's plane runs out of fuel at the expected destination? Don't ****.

[Solver]

Based on what I'm reading, the prevailing opinion is indeed that the president or someone else ordered to make the landing. The plane crashed roughly 40 minutes before the delegation was supposed to arrive in Katyn for the memorial, so obviously diverting to Minsk or Moscow would have caused them to be late. As such, the president might have ordered the landing.

There has indeed been a situation like that. During the war between Russia and Georgia, he flew to Georgia with also Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian leaders on board. The pilot said it's too dangerous to land in Tbilisi, was ordered by the president to do so, but in that case the pilot disobeyed and diverted to a safer area. IIRC, he was fired later, but don't quote me on that.

[SlowwHand]

Well, they're really late now. In a couple of ways.

[Wiglaf]

JERRY ORBACH IS THAT YOU :ANGRY:

[KrazyHorse]

JERRY ORBACH IS THAT YOU :ANGRY: