MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials investigating
the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech
Kaczynski placed the blame squarely on the Poles
on Wednesday, saying the crew was pressured
to land in bad weather by an air force
commander who had been drinking.
Kaczynski and 95 others, including his wife, died
in April 2010 when their Tu-154 plane crashed
while trying to land in Smolensk, Russia. There
were no survivors.
In Warsaw, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late
president's twin brother and head of the
opposition Law and Justice party, sharply
criticized the Russian aviation authorities' report,
calling it a "mockery of Poland" and saying it
unfairly puts all the blame on Poles. He said the
report fails to offer convincing evidence the Poles
are solely responsible and is based on
speculation.
It has been clear all along that the pilots' decision
to land in heavy fog at an airport with only basic
navigation equipment was the main reason for
the crash. However, Poles have been eagerly
awaiting the Russian report in order to learn if
other factors — such as possible mistakes by
Russian air traffic controllers or technical
conditions at the Russian airport — might have
played a role as well.
There was a broad expectation in Poland that
Russia would acknowledge some responsibility
and the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk,
expressed anger last month at an earlier draft by
Russian investigators that also reportedly put
responsibility only on Poles.
The issue of responsibility has a strong emotional
component in Poland, where suspicions of Russia
remain strong due Moscow's domination of
Poland in communist times, and to older
conflicts.
In Moscow, officials of the Interstate Aviation
Committee, which investigates crashes in much
of the former Soviet Union, said the pilots were
pressured to land by Poland's air force
commander, Gen. Andrzej Blasik, who was in the
cockpit. They said he had a blood-alcohol level of
about 0.06%, enough to impair reasoning.
Blasik's presence in the cockpit "had a
psychological influence on the commander's
decision to take an unjustified risk by continuing
the descent with the overwhelming goal of
landing by all means necessary," committee
chairwoman Tatiana Anodina told a news
conference announcing the final results of the
investigation.
Kaczynski slammed that conclusion, saying that a
suggestion of pressure on the pilots is an
example of speculation based only on what
"some psychologists are saying" with no
confirmation from the flight recorders.
He also said he was not fully convinced that Blasik
had been drinking but that in any case there is no
proof that the "small amount of alcohol" said to
be in his blood would have contributed to the
plane crash.
"This report is a mockery of Poland," Kaczynski
said.
The blood-alcohol content found in Blasik was
lower than what is generally considered outright
intoxication. But the professional pilots and
physicians group www.flightphysical.com says
"the number of serious errors committed by
pilots dramatically increases at or above
concentrations of 0.04%," a level lower than
Blasik's.
The Polish government has not yet reacted to the
Russian findings, saying it needed time to study
the roughly 200-page report.
The report found no fault with Russian air traffic
controllers, who "gave no permission to land,"
said Alexei Morozov, the head of the committee's
technical commission.
"They gave permission to descend to 100
meters," he said. "The crew should have started a
second attempt, but instead continued their
unauthorized descent."
Morozov added that a glitch in one of the plane's
gauges prompted the crew to think the plane was
more than 100 meters above the ground.
The crew of another Polish plane, a Yak-40 that
that had already landed at the Smolensk airport
shortly beforehand, recommended that the
presidential aircraft's crew attempt a landing,
Morozov said.
"The Yak-40's pilots gave a very emotional
warning about the bad weather, but suggested
that (the second plane) land," Morozov said.
Kaczynski and his delegation were on their way
to attend a ceremony commemorating the
victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre, in which
20,000 Polish officers and other prisoners of war
were killed by the Soviet secret police.
Efforts to cover up responsibility for the massacre
have long been a significant irritant in relations
between Poland and Russia. But in recent years
Russia has attempted to overcome the tensions
by releasing thick dossiers of documents and
saying the killings were ordered by dictator Josef
Stalin.
The symbolic importance of Kaczynski's planned
visit apparently increased the pressure to land the
aircraft despite the poor conditions. Morozov said
there was no "concrete command" from
Kaczynski to land. But he referred to one of the
pilots saying "he is mad," which is interpreted as
evidence that the pilots expected the president to
be angry if they did not get to the ceremonies on
time.
Source: Http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-01-12-polish-crash-blame_N.htm
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