airplane path

Polish Plane's Flight Path

 

These pictures come from a Russian professional pilot's website, (provided from a commenter whose wife speaks Polish), and answer some questions about the crash while leaving others unanswered. The trees in the plane's flight path leave a pathway of lopped off branches, the one below showing that the plane had banked to almost 90 degrees to the ground trying to avoid impact.

From the flight path picture above, the green line shows the correct approach to Smolensk airport. For some reason the plane descended on a steeper line and headed into a depression. The pilot realised his error and tried to regain altitude, but before he could do so, he began to hit a series of trees, which were in his way as he climbed up and out of the depression.

The plane was clearly not shot down. And the pilot and passengers clearly endured a white-knuckle ride lasting several seconds, before meeting their deaths.

But why did the pilot descend at a steeper angle than he should have done, and get into the depression in the first place?

Once he was fighting to clear trees it appears he lost part of his port-side wing, which fatally compromised the flight.