Thursday 15 April 2010

Conspiracy theories sprouting

EDIT, 16 April – my appeal. No matter how strongly we disagree with the decision to bury the president and his wife on Wawel let’s suspend all discussions and rows over this issue during the weekend. In the days to come we all ought to pay our respects to all departed ones who now deserve peace.

I haven’t prepared this overview on my own, it is just a summary of a compilation which appeared recently on WP.PL. Some are to a limited extent plausible, other smack of outright malarkey… Note that the points below do not refer to any confirmed facts.

1/ Russians had a hand in the tragedy – they had vested interest in getting rid of many Polish officials inconvenient for them, particularly president Kaczynski who was determined to fight for truth and his speech on Saturday could have thwarted the reconciliation policy pursued by Mr Tusk and Mr Putin.

2/ The crashed plane which had undergone an overhaul in August 2009 was deliberately wrecked by Russian secret services. Their agents allegedly tampered with the steering systems what could have impeded a safe touchdown.

3/ An explosion on board – some eye witnesses claimed they had heard a sound typical for explosion, akin to a bomb going off.

4/ Russians deliberately created a fog in Smolensk (as they could use chemistry to clear up sky over Moscow) either to prevent Mr Kaczynski’s appearance on the ceremony or to trigger a disaster.

5/ Black boxes were swapped – Russians were familiar with the technologies used in Tupolev planes so they concocted the record of the flight

6/ Warmth of Russians is just a smokescreen – their sympathy and help they offered us should distract our attention from their involvement in the scheme.

7/ The equipment on Smolensk was broken down – some say a few hours after the crash soldiers replaced some parts of air traffic control with new ones to cover up the blatant violation of safety issues.

8/ Mr Tusk was embroiled in the scheme. He plotted it in liaison with Mr Putin and Mr Komorowski. To boot all politicians had no other duties on that day and rushed to deal with the tragedy.

9/ Pilots faced pressure from president Kaczynski to land heedless of bad weather conditions (this thread was widely discussed on Poland-related English-language blogs).

10/ Katyn is a cursed place for Polish nation.

11/ The disaster was predicted by Nortradamus, who wrote about metal birds, which carried some eminent people from an invincible country and the country was soon invaded from the East.

12/ Not all victims died on the spot, some survived the crash but Russian secret services swiftly came around to kill them.

My comments to theories no. 11 and no. 12
Ad. 11/ I have “Centuries” by Nostradamus (in English) in PDF and searched for key words which appeared in the Polish version – nothing like this can be found there.

Ad. 12/ TVN 24 reported yesterday someone uploaded a film from the scene on which one can clearly hear shots. TVN 24 says however the film was uploaded on Tuesday, while the same footage was shown by Russian TV a day earlier.

Another note – Poles remain split over the funeral on Wawel. He worst thing is that I got lost, because there are several versions concerning the person behind this idea. Some try to suck up credit for the great idea, some try to shift blame to others.

4 comments:

Michael Dembinski said...

The Tu-154 circled over a low-hanging white blanket of cloud. The airfield was not equipped with a modern system to land safely. The captain looked down and calmly said to his co-pilot and navigator "Plot a course for the nearest alternative airport". But all at once siren voices started up at once in his head... silky, seductive voices... "land the plane, you know you can do it... you know you can, you're a brave pilot..."

Ten years earlier, the implant had been surgically placed into his cranium during what was ostensibly a routine dental procedure. Tuskovitz laughed to Putinstein as the two men pushed the probe deep into the captain's ear... Then the two cycled off to report to the O-Bahmah: "Grand Heirophant of the Thirty-Third Degree... We report that our mission has been successfully carried out!"

"You have served me well, my minions... You shall be well rewarded in KRKW in the Year 2010"

And so on and so on.

adthelad said...

"Napisał N077GL
... chyba ze mieli kompletnie rozregulowane wysokościomierze ale jest to wybitnie mało prawdopodobny scenariusz...
Napisał ESK1X
Niekoniecznie. Może nierozregulowane, ale źle ustawione... Wcześniej już ktoś chyba pisał (nie chce mi się szukać) o przyjęciu QFE jako QNH. Ewentualnie, jeśli dać wiarę słowom kontrolera który w wywiadzie z dziennikarką akcentował problemy pilotów ze rozumieniem cyfr wypowiadanych po rosyjsku, mogli zwyczajnie źle ustawić wysokościomierz. W realnych przyczynach pomijam już zasłyszaną dzisiaj wersję, że kontroler podał im ciśnienie "z czapki" i "czując pismo nosem" teraz chroni tyłek sugerując że załoga nie rozumiała co do nich mów - to jednak powinno się wyjaśnić po sprawdzeniu zapisów z rejestratora, nastawy wysokościomierzy i raportu pogodowego. Czekajmy więc cierpliwie na jakiś wieści od specjalistów z KBWL."
lotnictwo.net.pl

Michael Dembinski said...

"Czarny Maybach krążył po Smoleńsku tuż przed tragedią"...

Did not O. Rydzyk call Mme. Kaczynska a witch? Did he not say he was disappointed by Pres. Kaczynski for 'giving in to Jewish interests'? Making any connections?

student SGH said...

Adam, I heard something else: Russians have other standards of measuring height. Either the height above sea level or above local ground level is given. But I might be misrepresenting, I don't make any claims to be well-versed in the topic of aviation.

Michael, have I told you you have makings for good (non-?)fiction writer.

I look up to Mrs Kaczynska for that meeting on women's day. First Lady was a wise woman and had a good influence on the president, many times toned him down. Unlike the twin brother...