Approach

This is how a standard low-visibility approach to landing looks like:

Please note how tight to the ground the pattern is flown. The last turn is flown at the altitude of ~120m. The last (fourth) turn is flown with full flaps. Then the aircraft lands immediately—only a few seconds after the last turn is completed.

This pattern was definitely not flown by Polish 101. It could not have attempted a low-visibility approach to landing on RWY 26 of Smolensk-Severny. The landing pattern that MAK/Miller has presented to the public definitely was a high-visibility one.

Therefore either the weather conditions were not as told but a landing did took place (earlier in time), or landing did not take place (at the given time) because of the weather conditions. Indeed, both may be true, i.e. an aircraft, or even two aircraft, landed safely before the weather turned bad. After that no further aircraft was allowed to land; definitely not on the indicated runway 261°. Therefore MAK/Miller feeds lies to the public.

We know in some more detail where MAK/Miller are lying. Whatever the debris which was found on the airfield was — it could not have belonged to an airliner which was configured for landing, with its flaps fully extended, with all its lights lit, and so on. For the still unconvinced I shall throw in another argument: RWY 26 is always closed on foggy days.

It is silly to assume a landing of the craft that nobody has seen, with no flaps, no lights, and on the runway which is always closed — due to tragic loss of a few Russian aircraft in the past — when the weather conditions are as unfavorable as they allegedly were in the morning of April 10, 2010. The regulation to shut down RWY 26 at Severny on foggy days was duly confirmed by the Russian military, by the way.

This does not preclude a landing on the same runway, but from the other direction. It is indeed known that an aircraft or even two landed safely on Severny — probably on RWY 8 — on the very morning. However, little is known about the planes, the crews, the passengers, and the whereabouts of those early — and successful — landings. There are no confirmed recordings of those landings, only baloney recalling of haphazard memories.

What is more, there are no confirmed recordings from the alleged starting point of those flights, i.e. from Okecie Airport Warsaw (EPWA).