Russian Commission Issues Second Report on the Death of Former Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 96 Officials

Russian authorities released on Wednesday a report on the causes of the terrible accident that occurred on April 10, 2010, nearby the Russian city of Smolensk, and practically “beheaded” Poland, killing the President Lech Kaczynski and 95 top officials of the country.

According to the report of the investigation conducted under direct supervision of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the main causes of the catastrophe were flaws in flight preparation and poor pilot training.

Tatyana Anodina, head of Interstate Aviation Committee that conducted the investigations, said that the plane crashed because of serious organizational flaws, and poor pilot training at a special Polish air regiment base.

Another reason that played a major role, Anodina said, in the crash was the presence of the Polish president and of top-ranking officials on board the Tu-154, which influenced pilot’s decision to attempt a landing in spite of low visibility and bad weather conditions.

After hearing the flight recorder audio where a member of the crew said that the president may get angry if they did not land, the investigators decided that Kaczynski had exerted some “psychological pressure” on them before the crash.

The technical commission dismissed the idea that the plane crashed because of poor infrastructure and land equipment conditions, or because of any action of the traffic controllers.

The head of the technical commission, Alexei Morozov, said that the traffic controllers did not allow the plane to land below the critical altitude of 100 meters.

Te crew was allowed to descend to 100 meters, where, according to international rules, they had to make the decision whether to land or attempt a second landing. The crew did not report and the plane continued descending on its own, Morozov said.

The new report is basically similar to the first report issued by Russian authorities in October 2010, and presented to the Polish counterpart.

In the first report the blame was put on the pilot and his lack of skill to land under heavy fog conditions.

By mid-December 2010, the report came back to Moscow from Poland, with some 150 questions and comments. The Polish PM Donald Tusk complained back then that parts of the contract were “unacceptable.”

The main complaint of the Polish commission was that the Russian report provided very few technical details about Severny airport in Smolensk.

The Russian media reported at the time that the pilot had ignored the advise of the local air traffic controller to change course and land at a different airport.

The president of Poland and the top-ranking officials of the state were going to Smolensk to the purpose of attending the ceremony in honor of the 22,500 Polish officers killed by the Soviet secret services in the forest of Katyn, in 1940.

The Katyn case has been one of the reasons for the freezing of bilateral relations between Russia and Poland.

Late in 2010, the Russian Duma issued a statement by which the massacre at Katyn was blamed on the Soviet officers, after decades of denying it and blaming it on the Nazis.

That was the first sign of a thaw of relations between the two neighboring countries.