News / Zloty exchange rates - is this just speculation? [87]


Looks like 3.8/3.9 is indeed the natural level for the Zloty. It hasn't really moved much at all over the last month - and I cannot see any justification for it to weaken, or indeed strengthen. It does seem about the right level - roughly about 8 zloty for a beer in a German bar, or 15zl for a dish in an average cheap Chinese restaurant in Berlin.

However, the Zloty/Pound relationship is absolutely neurotic and unpredictable, but this has been the same way ever since the Zloty became convertible in the first place.

Love / Church of England - Catholic Marriage in Poland. [23]

I think they regard a Christian as someone who has been baptised in a recognised faith - so while Protestants are fine because they're an offshoot of the Catholic Church anyway, they wouldn't be so quick to allow someone from a (stereotypically...) American cult-church.

From what I gather, it's no issue if you don't actually attend church, it's the baptism that matters more.

But I guess -the Catholic Church takes the view that in their house, they make the rules - which is fair enough really. You don't need their involvement to get married, after all.

Love / Church of England - Catholic Marriage in Poland. [23]


Even if it's not written in Canon law explicitly, it is widely interpreted in Poland (and indeed, elsewhere) that a non-Christian cannot get married in the Church. Remember, you need the dispensation from the relevant Bishop - and this is by no means a given.

Love / Church of England - Catholic Marriage in Poland. [23]


Of course, it depends on the individual priest, but the general rule is that to avoid any trouble, you should be baptised and should agree for the children to be raised as Catholics. You might find a liberal priest who is willing to ignore this - but it's by no means certain, and it may require special approval - which given the processes of the Catholic Church, it's by no means certain that it will be granted.

I know that many priests simply wouldn't agree to marry an athiest in the church.

Love / Church of England - Catholic Marriage in Poland. [23]

Of course, it's not a problem for a civil marriage. For a church marriage, the CoE person must be baptised, that's all :)

Food / Best Farmer's Market in Warsaw area? [14]


Likewise here - it all comes from the big place at Franowo.

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]


So, instead of believing the facts (the pilot flew the plane into the ground) - you choose to believe that it was an assassination based upon a youtube video of unknown origin?

Wow. I do hope you don't have a vote in the upcoming election.

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]


If that's the cockpit, then you've just admitted that in the very shaky video, it cannot be the pilot raising his hand, which is contrary to what you've claimed on here. It's not the same part of the plane - yet you've claimed that both of these are the cockpit.

Please do try and get your story straight!


Are you now suggesting that the Russians are going to produce false recordings? Given that the black boxes were opened and examined in the presence of the Polish investigators, it would be quite incredible to somehow falsify the recordings.

Let's not forget that there's a third black box which was sent to Poland as it was Polish designed and operated and Russia doesn't have the technical capability to examine it.


So - are you saying that NASA are now involved in the cover up, as their satellite pictures clearly show fog over Smolensk-North at the time of the crash. Likewise, CNN did a rather comprehensive study of the weather conditions just after the crash and reached the same conclusion - that Smolensk-North was covered in fog. Let's not forget all the locals who have gone on record to talk about the fog - are they all involved, too?


Or the photos were taken at a previous time.


Consider one thing Olga - Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the man with the most to gain if there is indeed a cover up, hasn't said a thing publicly about this. Don't you think that he would scream about this from the hills if indeed there was any credible evidence whatsoever?

Or are you suggesting that Jaroslaw Kaczynski is participating in the cover up of the murder of his own twin brother?

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]


If this was true, then the Polish pilot directly disobeyed orders to go around. But as has been quoted - the pilot continued the approach after being told to go around or divert. There's also the fact that if it was a PAR approach, then they deliberately went against orders in regards to height.

So, what kind of theory do you have for these supposedly world-class pilots ignoring commands from ATC?


Only hearsay at this point - the Poles have asked the Russians to clarify what was going on. Given that the only 'evidence' for this happening is a picture being uploaded online, it's tenacious at best.


Well, yes, when a plane hits a tree, loses a wing, turns upside round and crashes at a decent speed, you'd expect people to be slightly hurt. Didn't you look at the post-crash videos?


Intact? It's destroyed.

But go on - tell me, why, if the pilots were flying an PAR approach, backed up with the NDB - why did they go so low when ATC told them to go around? From what I understand of the technical capabilities of the plane, they could still have survived if they had pulled up when recommended to do so.


What, the fog on the videos isn't real? But the gunshots and the bodies are? Make up your mind - either the video is real, or it's not.

As for pilot error being a lie - again, given that you seem to believe that the pilots were on a PAR approach, why didn't they pull up when told to do so?

One of the big questions here is just what approach they were flying - and why. Virtually anyone with any knowledge of aviation knows that they were way below the minimum visibility needed for a landing at Smolensk - so why?

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]

Just to show people how easily it is to destroy a plane - have a look at this.

youtube.com/watch?v=YUGtCGvIRUs&feature=channel

Now, bearing in mind that we know that the plane lost a wing a few hundred metres before, and we also know that the plane likely landed on its back - what chances of survival did anyone actually have?

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]


That's what the investigation is going to tell us. The facts aren't disputed - the plane was too low. Why? Pilot error. What made him go too low? Don't know - we have to wait and see.

Unless of course, you wish to explain why the plane managed to lose a wing a few hundred metres before crashing - planes don't tend to lose just one wing when "blown up in mid air".


I'm happier waiting for the Polish account, which as the military prosecutor says, is being completed with the full cooperation of the Russian authorities. Unless of course, you're paranoid enough to believe that the Polish military would actually participate in a cover-up alongside the Russians.

Jaroslaw must be desparing right now - he's kept his mouth firmly shut and hasn't endorsed any conspiracy theories, yet his voters are doing their damnest to ruin his chances. Perhaps conspiracy theorists would be wise to keep quiet until after the election?

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]


This is the best one yet, I think :D The others are good, but this one is just so unbelievable that I really applaud whoever thought it up - best short fiction story 2010 winner?


Even the Radio Maryja family doesn't appear to have picked up on this - and given that they love a good conspiracy theory....


Really? Experienced pilots never crash? So, how do you explain the FedEx crash at Narita, then? Or indeed, how about the Spanair crash in Madrid? Or even AA587?

All copied and pasted from this site - kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/04/14/11842.shtml

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavkaz_Center

hmm :)

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]


Of course - it "landed" in an airbase, wouldn't you expect there to be military on the scene in a mixed military-civilian airport? It's nothing special - Poznan Lawica only became purely civilian last December, for instance.

Love / Demands from Polish ex! [75]


She's lying - my water bill (and this is with regularly using far too much) is 100zl a month.

Where was the flat? If it was in one of the Commie-era blocks with the water paid to the administration (rather than to Aquanet directly) - she's certainly lying through her teeth.

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]

Losing your wing against a tree would tend to cause a plane to overturn. Perhaps you might want to look at how easy it is for a plane to overturn - the Spanair crash could tell you more.

What was the plane doing so low in the first place? Bear in mind that the Polish pilots clearly refused to divert after being told to do so - are you suggesting that the pilots intentionally went too low as to ensure the death of everyone on board?

Come on Olga, let's hear more about these technical conspiracy theories. Let's focus on the equipment that you believe to have been malfunctioning.

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]


Read the comments : thenews.pl is a dreadful news source. They misreport almost everything - they're no better than a typical tabloid. Poland asking for access will almost certainly be granted - they're not 'pressing' Russia at all. Russia, understandably, wants to find out what happened - the crash happened on their territory after all!

You still haven't explained your theory about how the NDB and TAWS systems were tampered with. Indeed - you still haven't explained the crew's actions.

Law / Polish Citizenship for a foreigner whose parents was born in Poland [174]

If you're 21 and your mother is no older than 60, you should be able to get it without much fuss :)

News / Crash of Tu-154 at Smolensk-North--could it have been a bomb in the Polish plane? [233]

Yes, remember, a plane loaded with fuel (by all accounts, it had enough fuel to get back to Warsaw and divert if required, along with having enough fuel to divert from Smolensk too) effectively is a flying bomb. 9/11 proved that beyond all doubt, and the same tactic was used with great success by the Japanese.

I'm still waiting for Olga's explanation as to why the TAWS didn't work, or indeed, her highly interesting account for why the NDB didn't guide the plane onto the runway.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]


Yes, because Georgia is small, weak and insignificant. And let's not forget - Georgia may very well have started it.


Not overly so, as there really is little to nothing that Poland can do about it except pay the going rate. I don't know how the communist central heating systems work - but if they're gas powered, then Poland's hands are tied.


Answer the questions.

Why do you think the TAWS system didn't work?
What kind of portable ILS system do you think the Russians used and then removed?

The answer "evil Russians" isn't good enough.


Do you honestly think that PO members (many of whom are experienced men from the days of the 1980's) are afraid of the Russians in the slightest? Don't be ridiculous! They're certainly savvy enough to realise that business can be done with Russia, but they've got nothing to fear - the fact that Tusk even negotiated the purchase of Patriot missiles tells you that they're not afraid to do what they want irrespective of what Russia wants.

Don't forget that NATO, numerically, is much stronger than Russia these days.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]


What about the portable ILS, Olga?

What about the TAWS system, Olga?

Come on, don't ignore our questions now.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]


Yes, so all they did was raise the price of gas, which Poland agreed to without any fuss, perhaps knowing that Russia wasn't keen on negotiating. Today's Russia uses economic, not military warfare.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]


Yup, of course we don't know. But it would seem that in the absence of any ILS system capable of taking the plane onto the runway, attempting an approach was always going to be extraordinarily difficult.


Which was an initiative of the Tusk government, not the Kaczynski government. Why would Russia murder the President, who had nothing to do with the deployment of Patriot missiles?

Anyway, while you're at it darling, why don't you go away and tell us about the TAWS maps for the Smolensk area.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]

Just to give people an idea of what the pilots were dealing with - here's a video of a landing in Zurich with 175m visibility to ILS cat IIb standards.

youtube.com/watch?v=EgeT-F9-1KI&feature=related

What on earth were the pilots thinking?

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]

I wonder if the official Polish report will acknowledge this?

Life / Experience with local charities in Poland? [7]

What about donating it to the Zoo there? They're about to open the only exhibit of Madagascar in Europe, so I believe. And I'm sure they're involved with conservation work, behind the facade of entertaining visitors to the zoo.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]


And this is what is feeding a lot of the nonsense - people just don't understand what an ILS system is, let alone how it works. I get the feeling that most of the conspiracy theorists conveniently forget to mention just how much kit is involved with a commercial ILS system.

Likewise, you don't just turn up and expect to find an ILS system!

The big mystery is why the pilots kept attempting the landing after being strongly recommended to go elsewhere.

Travel / Train from UK to Poland... How to do it? [8]


Best bet (if travelling from Poznan or Warsaw, or inbetween destinations) is to take the night train to Amsterdam, then head to Hoek van Holland for the ferry to the UK. Easy, painless and much, much quicker than by bus.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]


Olga, there was no ILS at Smolensk-North. It wasn't there to be removed - do you even know the first thing about what an ILS actually is? It's not just something you place and then remove at your convenience. There was the Russian system in place, but this has nothing to do with the ILS system.

Is it really that hard to believe that the Polish pilots simply took one chance too many? Certainly, the airport wasn't fit for landing at that time, that much is certain.

One point - if the pilots were expecting an ILS (not that there was one) system there, only to discover that there wasn't, why wouldn't they immediately divert? Russia didn't make them attempt the landing, you know. It's not the first time that a plane has had to divert due to a broken ILS system.

News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]


Yes Olga, because an ILS system can be easily moved from place to place.

This "fact" is one of the most stupid things I've heard yet on this forum.

Life / Bilet, controler and the Poland Police. [78]


It works fine on the LUAS, doesn't it?

Without an ID card confirming an address in Poland (or a driving licence) - then you don't have the option of receiving a receipt. It's pretty simple - only those with a valid Polish address (and an ID to back this up) have the option of paying later. Come on, do you really think someone from France for instance is going to pay a Polish public transport fine if they didn't give a Polish address?

I dare say the police simply took your passport details to make sure that you paid the fine.