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Analysis of fragments of Kaczynski’s crashed plane points to crew error

© Maxim Shemetov/TASS, archive

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. Employees of the Russian Investigative Committee, along with their Polish colleagues, have analyzed the fragments of the Tu-154M plane belonging to former Polish President Lech Kaczynski, which crashed near Smolensk in 2010. The analysis points to a crew error as the reason for the crash, the Russian Investigative Committee’s press service informed TASS.

"Joint analysis of the fragments of the Polish Tu-154M plane, which crashed in April 2010, has been concluded in Smolensk by the employees of the Russian Investigative Committee and members of the Polish competent bodies, once again initiated by the Polish colleagues," the Investigative Committee said. "All analyzed materials definitively point to an error by the crew, who continued its attempts to land in conditions of non-visibility."

The Tupolev-154M presidential plane of the Polish Air Force crashed in the morning of April 10, 2010 while trying to land at the Smolensk North Airport, killing 8 crew and 88 passengers, including President Lech Kaczynski. Criminal investigations are continuing in Poland and Russia.

The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) experts concluded that the crash happened as a result of the actions of crew, who had made the wrong decision to land under difficult weather conditions and under psychological pressure. The Polish governmental commission also named the crew’s mistakes among the causes of the crash, as well as the fact that the pilot ignored the TAWS (Terrain awareness and warning system) signals to prevent unintentional impact with the ground.

The Law and Justice Polish political party chaired by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother of the deceased Lech Kaczynski, disputed these conclusions initiated a revision of the experts’ work in 2015 by forming an updated sub-commission for investigating plane catastrophes.

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