Crew's error caused fatal plane crash near Smolensk - Polish official
15:0026/05/2010 MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) - Mistakes by the crew caused the crash of the Polish presidential plane near the western Russian town of Smolensk in April, Poland's envoy to the investigation said in his report on the accident.
The Soviet-made Tu-154 aircraft crashed on April 10 when it attempted to land in thick fog, killing all 96 people on board, including President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and other top state officials.
Air traffic controllers advised the pilot to turn around and head for Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, as the Smolensk military aerodrome lacked the necessary navigational equipment to receive planes in heavy fog.
Shortly after the tragedy, there was speculation that the pilot attempted to land at Smolensk due to pressure from Polish officials anxious to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre, in which Soviet secret police executed thousands of Polish military officers.
Edmund Klich, who heads the Polish air accident investigations commission, examined recordings on the plane's black boxes and conversations between the crew members.
"The pilots ignored all danger warnings shown by the aircraft's automatic controls, and took an undue risk. Why? Because they were trained to do so," Klich told Rech Pospolita newspaper.
The newspaper said that, although the air crash investigation is not yet complete, Klich has already placed the blame for the accident on the crew.
"I will take the risk and be responsible for this. I think society should know," he said.
Klich earlier said non-crew members were in the cockpit of the crashed plane, including Polish Air Force Commander Andrzej Blasik, who wanted to "find out what was going on" just minutes before the tragedy.
Media reports said that the Foreign Ministry's chief protocol officer was also in the cockpit.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
