Poland says that President Kaczynski’s plane started to disintegrate while still in the air
The subcommission for the investigation of the Smolensk air crash at the Ministry of Defense of Poland believes that Lech Kaczynski's plane began to disintegrate while it was still in the air.
“The plane began to disintegrate in the air and began to lose pieces, which fell to the ground, even before it hit the birch tree. The birch tree did not play a role in the outcome of the disaster in any way,” the head of the subcommittee, Vaclav Berczyński, said while on air with TVP Info television station, Radio Poland reports.
The previous version of the tragedy said that when approaching the Smolensk-Severny airfield for a landing in severe fog, the airliner collided with trees, overturned, crashed on the ground and was completely destroyed.
Asked about the basis for this new conclusion, Berczyński said that the experts carefully studied the communications that the pilot had with the control tower. According to him, fragments of the aircraft were scattered over a large area.
But the head of the committee stressed that the cause of the catastrophe is still unknown.
On April 3, another strong statement was made about the Smolensk disaster. The Polish prosecutor's office accused two Russian dispatchers of the Tu-154 crash along with certain third person who allegedly was in the control tower.
The Smolensk disaster, which killed the Polish president, occurred seven years ago, on April 10, 2010.
There were 96 people on board the aircraft, including the head of state Lech Kaczynski, when it crashed on approach to the Smolensk-Severny airfield in conditions of dense fog and reduced visibility. All passengers and crew were killed.
Kaczynski was traveling to Russia to mark the seventieth anniversary of the execution of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest.