By Matthew Day, Warsaw
Apr 10, 2014
The Smolensk air disaster that claimed the lives of the former president, his wife and 94 others, was caused by a mysterious explosion on board that ripped the aircraft apart according to a Polish MP.
The claim was made in a report that was published as Poland commemorated the fourth anniversary of the plane crash that claimed the lives of President Lech Kaczynski and dozens from the country's political, military and civil elite,
An official air-crash investigation concluded the disaster was an accident caused by a number of factors such as pilot error and thick fog enveloping Smolensk airport as the Tupolev Tu-154 government plane tried to land at Smolensk airport in western Russia on the morning of April 10, 2010.
But in a 200-page report entitled 'Four Year after Smolensk: How the President Died,' Antoni Macierewicz, an MP from Law and Justice, a party founded by Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw, claimed the plane was brought down by an explosion.
Mr Macierewicz and Mr Kaczynski have long maintained the president was assassinated, possibly by the Russians, and the present Polish government was involved in a cover-up.
"Never in the history of the world has a government and prosecutors strived so hard to block access to the truth," Mr Macierewicz told reporters as he began the report's presentation.
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister who also lost colleagues at Smolensk, has always rebuffed any accusations that his government was somehow involved in the disaster.
Citing expert witnesses Mr Macierewicz said fragments of the wreckage showed signs of an explosion that occurred shortly before the plane hit the ground. In a presentation on his report the MP released photographs appearing to show sections of the aircraft bent outwards, as if they had been subjected to a blast.
He also said the scattering of the debris was consistent with a mid-air explosion rather than impact with the ground.
The report may add some momentum to the belief many Poles have that the Smolensk disaster was no accident, but is unlikely to sway the view of the majority, who dismiss conspiracy theories.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/10758863/Smolensk-air-disaster-was-caused-by-mystery-explosion.html
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Complete conspiracy nonsense. Let me know when the Government of Poland officially backs off its own report.
Poland’s professional accident investigators went over the scene thoroughly in 2010. Poland had full access to the site and every reason to accuse the Russians if there was any evidence and no reason to cover for Russia.
Law and Justice (PiS), led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of the late President Lech Kaczynski, has presented the first part of the so-called White Book report on the Smolensk tragedy of 10 April last year, days before the release of the official government version.
Law and Justice has been highly critical of both the Russian and Polish investigations into the tragedy which killed 96 politicians and top military brass, among others.
Shortly after the air crash in western Russia, the opposition party, closely associated with the late President Kaczynski, set up its own parliamentary committee headed by MP Antoni Macierewicz. The report represents the conclusions of the committee.
The White Book on Smolensk comprises 20 chapters and contains over 100 additional documents gathered and compiled by the team of Law and Justice MP investigators.
The first part of the report released today deals with alleged shortcomings of the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee's (MAK) report released last year, though all of the criticisms have been made before by Law and Justice.
The second part of the document will be issued tomorrow and will detail criticisms of the Polish government's investigation, the report of which is currently being translated into English and Russian and will be released shortly, possibly on Friday.
One of the conclusions of the first part of the Law and Justice report is that Russian protocol envisaged only the attendance of Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the 70th anniversary commemorations of the 1940 Katyn Massacre. Because of this, says the report, President Kaczynski's arrival three days later in western Russia had been given the status of a private and not official state visit.
This had the consequence of downgrading security arrangements for the party led by Lech Kaczynski, says the report.
"The decision had been taken by the Russian side but it was approved by representatives of Mr. Tusk's government," MP Antoni Macierewicz said today as he launched the report.
"Nevertheless, the decision itself had been in Russian hands. Polish diplomats were informed openly that only Prime Minister Tusk will be guaranteed security, while the President's visit remains of no interest to the Russian side," he said.
Antoni Macierewicz also stressed that the doomed presidential Tupolev 154 had undergone a general overhaul barely a year before the crash at the Aviakor plant in Russian Samara.
Law and Justice reject the conclusions of the Russian report, which blamed pilot error for the crash. Antoni Macierewicz emphasises that air traffic control at the Smolensk airport did not give clear guidance to the pilots as they approached landing.