Probably 100% pilot error but look at this:
http://aviadocs.net/AIP/aip/ad/ad2/rus/ ... dd-txt.pdf
This is a part of Russian AIP (Airport Information Publication) talking about Salekhard, the airport to which the crashed plane was trying to approach. In the end of the document you will see
"USDD AD 2.19 RADIO NAVIGATION AND LANDING AIDS"
There you can check that approaches to principal runways are guided through ILS CAT I (Category I)
For guys not familiar to IFR navigation go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument ... categories and read about category I. This information is quoted from there:
"Category I (CAT I) - A precision instrument approach and landing with a decision height not lower than 200 feet (61 m) above touchdown zone elevation and with either a visibility not less than 800 meters (2,625 ft) or a runway visual range not less than 550 meters (1,804 ft)."
In this document (is in spanish... use google translator)
http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2010/4 ... 483248.asp the man who wrote it says that visibility was about 400 meters. (Mind he made a mistake saying that visibility must be over 1000m

that's why nobody trusts journalists

) So if this information is correct, pilot should not have tried to land on that airport, specially after 3 missed approaches.
I dont know either if this was a politic decission or pilot's, but the plane did crash into some trees during approach... Some pilots are more skilly than others and for sure the guy who fly for polish PM is not a noob, so maybe he just thought the landing was safe and, after 3 attempts, he was nervous and make a mistake.
No sign of conspiracy btw....