Poland asks US for Help with Investigation into Plane Crash that Killed President Kaczynski in 2010
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said that on Monday, during his visit to the U.S., he will ask for Washington's help with the investigation into the Smolensk disaster that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski in 2010.
"We'll ask whether the U.S. has any data that could be useful in the investigation of the crash... Perhaps their satellites recorded something at the moment of the disaster, or whether U.S. intelligence has received information which could be important," as quoted by Radio Poland.
Waszczykowski also commented on the words of the Defense Minister, Antoni Macierewicz, that Warsaw will join the coalition against the so-called Islamic State. According to the head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is "nothing new" in this decision and requests were previously received from both the Americans and the French.
"Poland has been fighting terrorism for many years; we have troops in Iraq and in other countries... We will provide information and intelligence," Waszczykowski said.
The Tu-154 airplane carried the former President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, and other senior civilian and military officials on board. The plane crashed on the 10th of April 2010 while landing near Smolensk on its way to Katyn, where the Polish delgation travelled in order to hold a memorial for the Polish officers who were killed at the hands of the Soviet NKVD in 1940, an event known as the Katyn Massacre. The plane crash took the lives of 96 people.