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.

FMI: www.mak.ru/english/english.html, www.ulc.gov.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=427&Itemid=430