Tue, Aug 02, 2011
President Lech Kaczynski, 95 Others Fatally Injured When TU-154
Went Down
The government of Poland says Russia is at least partially to
blame for an accident in April, 2010 that fatally injured everyone
on board a TU-154, including President Lech Kaczynski, his wife,
and several members of his cabinet.
TU-154
In all, 96 people lost their lives when the airplane went down
while attempting to land in heavy fog as the President was
traveling to a memorial service for the victims of the Katyn
massacre in 1940.
The BBC reports the Polish Government found in its investigation
that that the pilot of the Tupolev was inexperienced in
landing the aircraft in poor weather, and that the crew was not
properly equipped for the conditions.
But it also says that the airport lighting at Smolensk was
"defective", and an air traffic official had passed along
"erroneous information" to the flight crew. The report says the
crew was misinformed about the true altitude of the airplane during
its approach, and that a crucial warning came too late to be
effective.
Russia said that the flight crew had been pressured by members
of the President's party on board the plane to land, and that the
accident was caused by pilot error. Russia said the Polish pilot
had taken unnecessary risks to land the plane. But the Polish
report says there was no evidence that President Kaczynski or
anyone traveling on the aircraft had placed any pressure on the
aircrew to land the plane against their better judgement.
The dispute over the conflicting accounts of the accident has
reportedly caused strained relations between the Polish and Russian
governments.
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