Air traffic control told Polish president's plane not to land

[FarCenter]

Russian air traffic controllers advised the pilot of a plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski not to attempt to land, the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza said on Saturday.

All 96 people on board a Soviet-made Tu-154 were killed earlier on Saturday when the plane hit trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog.

The paper said the pilot and Kaczynski were advised to turn around and head for Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, as the Smolensk military aerodrome lacks the necessary navigational equipment to receive planes in heavy fog.

But the pilot and Kaczynski ignored the advice, the paper said.

<SNIP>http://en.rian.ru/world/20100410/158510160.html

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On google maps, there appear to be two airports at Smolensk. The civilian airport south of Smolensk is pretty small. The military airport north of Smolensk is much larger, but according to the above story, it does not have the navigational aids for landing in fog.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=smolensk+russia&fb=1&gl=us&ei=ca7AS5iJL4WglAfN4NHcBA&ved=0CBIQ8gEwAw&view=map&geocode=Fa3kQwMd-QbpAQ&split=0&iwloc=A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_Airport this is the one south of Smolensk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_(air_base) this is the one north of Smolensk, where the pilot attempted to land
If you zoom in on google maps, you can see quit a lot of heavy transports parked there.