The Investigative Committee denied the Warsaw’s accusations against Russian air traffic controllers, who worked in Smolensk airport on the day when Lech Kaczynski’s (former President of Poland) aircraft crashed. “Russian Investigative Committee continues investigation of the plane crash. The obtained results show that air traffic controllers did not violate any rules,” the official representative of Russian Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, told Interfax.
According to him, “they acted in strict compliance with instructions and international regulations”. “Verbatim record from the air traffic control center are available; all the warnings are specified there: the fact that control tower didn’t give a pilot a clearance to land and the landing decision point was set at the height of 100 meters, the crew confirmed that they are ready to execute a go-around, as well as further warnings of air traffic controllers about ground proximity and need for executing a go-around,” Markin reminded.
He stressed, “All these warnings were ignored by the crew, which (in accordance with international civil aviation regulations) is responsible for piloting the aircraft and landing procedure”. “I must admit that in accordance with the Polish party’s inquiry, investigators interrogated persons having any information about the crash, including flight operations officers. All the verbatim records were handed over to Polish Public Prosecution Service,” Markin said. “I would like to remind you that technical commission of the Interstate Aviation Committee did not find any proof the air traffic controllers violating any rules,” Markin added.
According to him, Russian Investigative Committee continues to support the Polish investigators and it is ready to support them in future and provide them with all the required information.
The Tu-154 aircraft owned by Polish air forces crashed near Smolensk on April 10th 2010. Official Polish delegation headed by the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski was onboard; the airliner headed to Katyn, where the delegation should have taken part in commemorative events. 96 people died – 88 passengers and eight members of the crew. Among passengers of this flight were Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, over ten high-ranking officials, members of the parliament, including two Deputy Speakers of the Seim and Deputy Speakers of the Senate, famous Polish public and religious figures.
In January 2011 the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) unveiled the final report on results of the technical investigation of the crash. Decision of the crew not to land the aircraft at an alternate airport was named the main reason for the crash; among other reasons are shortcoming related to flight operations and personnel training.
Meanwhile, the Polish Public Prosecution Service has brought charges against two Russian air traffic controllers. It was stated by the representative of the Polish Military Attorney Office at a press-conference held in Warsaw on March 27th. He presented a report containing 200 pages and dedicated to the reasons of the crash. One of the Smolensk Airport’s air traffic controllers is charged with “indirect responsibility for the crash” and the other one – with “direct responsibility for the crash”. The prosecutors have already started the process of bringing the charges against Russian air traffic controllers and they going to interrogate them as suspects. The citizens of Russia are facing from 6 months to 8 years in prison.
At that, according to the report, the main reason for the crash was bad decisions made by the crew under severe weather conditions. Moreover, most of the members of this crew did not have the required permission to pilot the presidential aircraft. The investigation was extended to October 10th 2015.
