Politics is playing a vital role in investigation – former pilot

Poland’s final report on last year’s plane crash suggests both the Polish flight crew and the Russian air traffic controllers were at fault.Mark Weiss believes politics is playing a vital role in the dissemination of information from the report.

­“This is a politicized issue,” retired American Airlines pilot Mark Weiss told RT. “It seems as though politics is playing a vital role in the dissemination of information that is coming out of these reports. But as the last report said, when it comes down to it the decision to land an airplane is basically in the hands of the flight crew and the captain in particular.”  

Weiss says the Polish captain was under pressure from military officials or others on board before making the deadly decision.

“The fact that they had other people coming into the cockpit helping to make that decision, putting pressure on the pilot…normally they may have decided and elected to go to an alternative airport, but they decided to land at that airport,” he said.  “It seems like it’s based on political pressure,” Weiss concluded.

Aviation expert Chris Yates says he was surprised when he saw a comment that it was not up to the pilot. He says that was entirely the wrong way around.

“It should always be the commander of the aircraft who determines whether there are safe conditions to land or otherwise, based on the information that has been given to him.”

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