The opposition party’s report on the crash contradicts the Russians’ account
Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, has said that Russia bears most of the responsibility for last year’s plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, which killed his twin brother and then-President Lech Kaczyński along with 95 others.
The comments came during a recent press conference in Warsaw where former Prime Minister Kaczyński and Antoni Macierewicz, the head of the PiS investigation into the tragedy, presented the findings of their party’s initial report into the disaster. The report’s conclusions contradict those expressed by the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) in its own report, released in January.
The MAK report placed the blame for the crash squarely on the Polish side, saying pilot error was the main reason that the Tupolev Tu-154M clipped trees on its descent into Smolensk North Airport, causing it to slam into the forest, killing everyone on board.
Citing PiS’s report, Mr Macierewicz told journalists earlier this week that, “Given the [foggy] weather conditions, the Russians should have closed the airport. The Polish pilots were knowingly led to their death.”
He said that Russian air traffic controllers had begged their superiors to allow the Polish plane to land at an alternative, safer airport. “But their HQ refused and ordered them to land the plane,” Mr Macierewicz said.
PiS’s report also states that Russian authorities had broken protocol by not giving a weather forecast to the Polish pilots prior to the flight. The report adds that authorities failed to notify emergency services immediately after the incident: the first ambulances did not arrive until 17 minutes after the plane hit the ground, the report says.
Moreover, the report alleges that autopsies were performed on victims without the consent or presence of representatives from the Polish side.
“The key conclusion is that the main burden of guilt for what happened lies with the Russians, though some share of the guilt, related to the procedures after the crash, also lies on the Polish side,” Mr Kaczyński said.
Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich, also came in for criticism for his alleged failure to buy new, more modern aircraft for the state, despite the then-President Lech Kaczyński requesting that he do so.
Mr Kaczyński, however, reiterated his belief that, despite mistakes made by Mr Tusk’s government, if it was not for the Russians, the disaster would never have occurred.
PiS now plans to make the rest of the findings public in the coming months, Mr Macierewicz said.
With Poland due to hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the next six months, and with political campaigns already underway ahead of this fall’s parliamentary elections, the debate over the exact circumstances of last year’s tragedy continues to loom large over the country’s main political parties. According to political analysts, the furor surrounding the tragedy will likely become a key campaign issue for PiS as they look to overcome Civic Platform (PO) as the Sejm’s majority party.
David Ingham
Who hid the evidence?
The most crucial evidence in Smolensk crash disappeared somewhere in one of the institutions under Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Mutual accusations of hiding materials received from the USA flied across bureaus. The satellite picture taken on 10 April was allegedly amongst the evidence lost. The guilty one has not been found. Counter-Intelligence service, Internal Security Agency and Polish Home Office declared posting it to the Military Public Prosecutor, but prosecutors claim they haven’t received it.
Źródło: Source: Warsaw Business Journal 30th June 2011