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Poland’s DefMin may ask NATO for assistance in Tu-154M jet fragments transfer case

"We should try, demand it, and probably even follow the piece of advice from the Prime Minister of Norway and approach NATO allies", Poland’s defense minister Antoni Macierewicz said

© Vladimir Astapkovich/ITAR-TASS

WARSAW, April 10. /TASS/. Poland is considering the possibility of approaching NATO with a request for assistance in the matter of transfer of fragments of the Tu-154M presidential jet crashed in 2010 near Smolensk from Russia, Poland’s defense minister Antoni Macierewicz said on Saturday night on the air with the local TVP Channel.

The Polish side should continuing working on transfer of jet fragments held by Russia to Poland by all the possible methods, Macierewicz said. "We should try, demand it, and probably even follow the piece of advice from the Prime Minister of Norway and approach NATO allies", the minister added.

The plane of Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed when trying to land at Smolensk airport in thick fog on April 10, 2010. The plane fell down meters before reaching the runway. A Polish government commission concluded that the plane had lost altitude lower than the permissible level at extremely high speed in weather conditions, which made contact with the earth impossible. The late decision to go for an extra circle was also a root cause behind the plane crash, which killed all the 96 people onboard.

Russia repeatedly said that Tu-154M jet fragments are the material evidence and cannot be handed over to Poland until the investigation ends.

Macierewicz initiated resumption of the air accident commission’s activities this March. He said the commission members made the insufficiently thorough analysis and did not address many factors.

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