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Russia: Drunk Polish official causes president's plane crash

0 CommentsPrint E-mail CNTV, January 13, 2011
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Russian officials investigating last year's plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other top officials have blamed the aircraft's crew. Their report found that the crew was pressured to land in bad weather by a Polish air force commander who had been drinking.

 

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee said the decision to land despite heavy fog, caused the April crash, killing all 96 people onboard.

It added that Poland's air force commander had a blood alcohol level of 0.06 percent, which could have caused him to pressure the crew into landing in the bad weather.

IAC official Alexei Morozov said, "The presence of the Polish air force chief inside the cockpit influenced the crew commander's decision to continue the descent to a level below the safe height of 100 meters, without having visual contact with the guide systems on the ground."

The plane's black box recorded no command from the Polish President ordering the plane to land in Smolensk.

However, it showed that crew members also feared he would be mad if they aborted the landing.

Alexei Morozov said, "The evidence of a crew member saying "he'll get mad" indicates that they were in a psychologically difficult situation. It's clear that the commander of the flight crew expected a negative reaction from the Polish President if they aborted from the emergency landing."

The investigation cleared Russian air traffic controllers of any wrongdoing.

The report has been met with mixed reactions in Poland.

Some were grudgingly accepting of its conclusion and keen to move on, but others said the probe was unbalanced and failed to acknowledge any possible Russian errors.

Last month the Polish government threatened to derail a cautious rapprochement with Russia after reviewing a preliminary version of the report.

 

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