RUSSIAN INVESTIGATORS have blamed a host of Polish failings for the air crash that killed the country’s president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other VIPs last April.
The findings drew a furious reaction from former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Lech’s twin brother, and could jeopardise the tentative rapprochement between Moscow and Warsaw that followed the disaster near Smolensk airport in Russia.
Mr Kaczynski and 95 other people, including top Polish political, military and financial figures, died when their Tupolev-154 crashed in fog on approach to Smolensk as they travelled to Katyn to commemorate 22,000 Polish officers massacred there by Soviet forces in 1940.
Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said the pilots lacked sufficient training to land the aircraft in poor conditions, ignored advice from air traffic control to divert to another airport, and reacted too late to automatic warnings from cockpit safety systems.
Crucially, the flight crew was also placed under pressure by senior officials and by the perceived determination of Mr Kaczynski to land at Smolensk and nowhere else, the IAC found.
“The presence in the cockpit of high-ranking officials – Poland’s air force chief and head of protocol – and the expected negative reaction from the main passenger put psychological pressure on crew and affected decision-making regarding the continuation of landing under any conditions,” said the head of the IAC, Tatyana Anodina.
The “main passenger” was Mr Kaczynski, who was as well known for his dislike and suspicion of Russia as for his brusqueness. He had previously upbraided a pilot for “cowardice” when he refused to land the presidential jet in Georgia during its 2008 war with Russia.
Cockpit voice recordings revealed how one member of the crew said “He’ll go crazy” when it was suggested Mr Kaczynski be told it was impossible to land at fog-bound Smolensk.
The IAC also revealed the Polish air force chief, Andrzej Blasik, had a significant amount of alcohol in his blood – enough to impair judgment according to some experts.
Polish interior minister Jerzy Miller, who is leading his country’s investigation, said he did not dispute the IAC’s criticism of Poland, but queried the way it absolved all at Smolensk airport of blame.
“Both sides were equally ill-prepared for the flight,” he said, as prime minister Donald Tusk flew home early from a holiday to discuss the report with his government.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who has mooted a Russian plot or cover-up and lambasted Mr Tusk for letting Moscow lead the inquiry, was enraged by the IAC’s conclusions.
“The report makes a mockery of Poland . . . blames Polish pilots and Poland without proof, in a unilateral fashion. Many questions remain unanswered,” he said.
Edmund Klich, Poland’s envoy to the IAC investigation, said Smolensk’s air traffic controllers were also under pressure to let the aircraft land and avoid a diplomatic incident.
“It’s always easiest to pin the blame on the pilots,” he said. “The report we have is incomplete.”
