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Smolensk air disaster

Coordinates: 54°49′26.02″N 32°3′4.54″E / 54.8238944°N 32.0512611°E / 54.8238944; 32.0512611
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Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
Part of the fuselage near Smolensk
Accident
DateApril 10, 2010 (2010-04-10)[1]
SummaryUnder investigation, pilot error suspected[1][2][3]
Site200 m (660 ft) short of runway at Smolensk North Airport[4]
54°49′26.02″N 32°3′4.54″E / 54.8238944°N 32.0512611°E / 54.8238944; 32.0512611
Aircraft
Aircraft typeTupolev Tu-154M
Operator36 SPLT, Polish Air Force
Registration101
Flight originFrédéric Chopin Airport,
Warsaw, Poland
DestinationSmolensk North Airport
Smolensk, Russia
Passengers89
Crew7
Fatalities96[5]
Survivors0

The 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash occurred on 10 April 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed after being mistakenly targeted by an aging Soviet era air defense system[6] near the city of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board. These included the Polish president Lech Kaczyński and his wife, the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers, the president of the National Bank of Poland, Poland's deputy foreign minister, Polish government officials, 12 members of the Polish parliament, senior members of the Polish clergy, and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre.[7][8] They were en route from Warsaw to attend an event marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre;[9] the site of the Katyn massacre being approximately 19 kilometres (12 mi) west of Smolensk.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. According to preliminary reports, the pilot attempted to land at Smolensk North Airport, a former military airbase, in thick fog that reduced visibility to about 500 metres (1,600 ft).[10][11] The plane was too low as it approached the runway. It struck trees in the fog, rolled upside down, impacted the ground, broke apart, and eventually came to rest 200 metres (660 ft) short of the runway in a wooded area.[7][12][13] On 1 June 2010, the Polish Prime Minister released a full transcript of the last 39 minutes (from 10:02:48.6 to 10:41:05.4 MSD) of the cockpit voice recording.[14][15][16]

Accident

Flight map
Tupolev Tu-154M tail number 101 leaving Boryspil International Airport in 2008

The Tupolev Tu-154M of the 36th Special Aviation Regiment[17] carrying Polish President Lech Kaczyński crashed at 10:41 MSD (initially released estimates gave the time as 10:56 MSD ,08:56 CEST, 06:56 UTC),[7][18][19] near the village of Pechersk, just north of the city of Smolensk, Russia, from where Kaczyński was due to visit the nearby site marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.[18] The plane took off at 07:23 CEST (05:23 UTC) from Warsaw Frédéric Chopin Airport (800 km away from Smolensk), carrying 89 passengers and 7 crewmembers;[5] presidential aide Zofia Kruszyńska-Gust became ill just before the trip and did not board the plane. Some of the earlier reports gave erroneous information about the number of persons on board the flight.[20]

About an hour before the crash, a Yakovlev Yak-40 jet also belonging to the Polish government[21] carrying Polish journalists from the president's press pool landed at the airbase without incident.[22] The weather conditions were quickly deteriorating; shortly after, a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 attempted to land, but due to poor visibility, the crew decided to divert to the Vnukovo Airport near Moscow.[23] When the presidential plane arrived, the airbase was enveloped in thick fog, and the ground control personnel suggested the pilot divert to either Moscow or Minsk (400 km and 300 km away, respectively). Despite this, the pilot made the decision to attempt a landing there.[24] The plane crashed during this attempt, 200 m (650 feet) short of the runway after hitting first an 11-metre (33-foot) high tree on the approach to the runway.[25][26][27][28] The crash occurred in fog (500 m (1,600 ft)* visibility) about 200 metres (700 ft) from Smolensk North Airport,[29]300 to 400 metres (1,000 to 1,300 ft) off the landing path.[30] The cause of the crash is under investigation.[31][32][33] Preliminary data suggest this incident may have been controlled flight into terrain,[34] despite the fact that the plane had been equipped with a terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) made by Universal Avionics Systems of Tucson.[35][36][37][38] On 24 April 2010 The Russian Interstate Aviation Committee confirmed that the TAWS system was turned on.[39] TVN24 reported that the sound of the warning had been heard on the flight deck.[40]

The Governor of Smolensk Oblast, Sergey Antufyev, confirmed that there were no survivors of the crash. Pictures from the scene showed parts of the airplane charred and strewn through a wooded area.[18] The Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, said that the bodies of those killed in the crash would be brought to Moscow for identification.[41] Kaczyński's body was identified in Smolensk and was flown directly to Warsaw on the afternoon of 11 April.[42]

Investigation

Within hours of the crash, the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, announced the establishment of a special commission for the investigation of the accident. The commission will be supervised by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.[43][44][45] An Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General of Russia started a criminal case in accordance with a "violation of the safety rules" of the Russian Criminal Code.[46]

Two flight recorders were recovered undamaged from the crash site during the afternoon/early evening of 10 April, as was confirmed by Sergey Shoygu, the Russian Minister of Emergency Situations.[47] That evening, it was reported that the recordings confirm that the pilot was making attempts to land against the advice of air traffic controllers.[48] The third flight recorder was found on 12 April.[49]

Preliminary data indicated that the plane hit the treetops as it was making the approach to the airport in poor visibility.[50]

On the day after the crash, investigators said they had reviewed the flight recorders, and confirmed that there were no technical problems with the Soviet-built aeroplane, ruling out initial theories that the 20-year-old plane was at fault. Alexei Gusev, general director of the Aviakor factory, said that the aircraft's three engines had been repaired and technicians had upgraded the plane's avionics.He said that there were no doubts about the plane's airworthiness.[51]

Russia is offering full cooperation to Polish prosecutors during the investigation.[52] Polish investigators in Russia have been given access to all procedures of Russian investigators. They do not have the authority to conduct investigative actions by themselves, but they are participating on equal terms with their Russian counterparts in the interviews with people involved and other parts of the investigation. Polish officials are to secure all Polish state documents found in the wreckage, as well as electronic devices (portable computers and mobile telephones) belonging to government officials and military officers. In turn Russian investigators received from Poland materials secured after the crash, including those about the technical state of the airplane and fitness of the pilot. The Polish investigation results will be based in part on Russian findings, but they are not bound by the results of the Russian investigation. Preliminary results of the investigations were to be released on the Thursday after the crash (including the cockpit voice recordings), but this was postponed until after the weekend when the funeral of the presidential couple is to take place,[52][53] then postponed indefinitely until full analysis is completed. The third flight data recorder, designed and produced in Poland, will be sent to Poland and analyzed there, with the participation of Russian experts.[54] An initial report by Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (Russian: Межгосударственный авиационный комитет (MAK)) revealed that all three engines were operating normally, and that there was no fire or explosion before the aircraft crashed.[55] According to the newspaper Dziennik, Polish flight recorder ATM-QAR registered that precisely at 8:41:02,5 (Polish time) the tail of the plane was separated from the rest of the plane. All systems of Tu-154 stopped working at 8:41:04. Fuel temperature was below 0 degrees C. Engines when the plane was above the road were at 60% of their nominal power (Tu-154 needs about 10 s to get 100% of power from engines). They also claim that the plane was 40 m lower than it should be.[56]

There is still a discrepancy between the time of the crash registered by MARS flight recorders (10:41:05.4), ATM-QAR recorder(10:41:04) and the time when electricity lines were cut by the crashing plane just a second or two before the final crash (time of the cut registered by Smolensk power plant was 10:39:35).[57]

On 19 May 2010, the preliminary report of the investigation into the crash was published. Alexei Morozov, the head of the technical commission of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee, stated that the Tupolev Tu-154M had no mechanical faults, and that an air traffic control official at Smolensk North Airport had "warned twice that visibility was 400 metres (1,312ft) and that were no conditions for landing". The investigation ruled out a terrorist attack, explosion or fire on board the plane as the cause of the crash. It was also reported that the voices of two non-crew members were heard in the cockpit during the period leading up to the crash. One of the voices was identified by sources as the Polish Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Andrzej Błasik.[58][59]

According to the Interstate Aviation Committee report from 19 May 2010, the aircraft first hit an 11 metre tree approximately 1100 metres from the runway. The plane was also off by 40 metres from the extended middle line of the runway. The TAWS alarm "Pull up!" was first sounded at 100 metres altitude and then repeated several times before the crash. It was first sounded 18 seconds before hitting the tree and the crew attempted to abort landing 13 seconds later. Due to geographical relief the plane was actually 15 metres below the runway at the time of the first impact.[25]

On 26 May 2010, it was reported[2] that pilot error had been identified as the reason for the crash. Edmund Klich, the head of the Polish investigative commission, stated in an interview "Pretty much everything is clear right now and nearly all evidence has been gathered". “The pilots ignored the plane's automatic warnings and attempted an incredibly risky landing,” Klich said.[2] According to the report, the crew of the Tupolev Tu-154M failed to respond for 13 seconds when the plane's "terrain approaching" alarm warned that the plane was less than 100 metres from the ground. The plane attempted to pull up after hitting a five metre tall birch tree, but part of the left wing had been sheared off in the impact. The plane then went into a spin before landing on its back and disintegrating five seconds later. Edmund Klich declined to speculate on whether the pilot had been placed under pressure to land, commenting: "Psychologists will have to assess the stress levels the pilots were subjected to.[3]

On 1 June 2010, Poland’s Interior Ministry published a transcript from the cockpit voice recorder of the crashed TU-154M.[15] The transcript confirmed earlier reports that the plane had attempted to land in bad weather against the advice of air traffic control and the plane's terrain awareness warning system.[16] At one point in the recording, Mariusz Kazana, the Director of Diplomatic Protocol in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, enters the cockpit and is told by the pilot "Sir, the fog is increasing. At the moment, under these conditions that we have now, we will not manage to land" to which Kazana replies "Well, then we have a problem."[60]

Expert commentators have noted that the flight navigator, who was listing the altitude readings on the transcript, was referring to the radar altimeter (which gives height above ground) rather than the pressure altimeter (which would provide the height relative to the level of the runway).[61] Because the terrain rises up to the runway, this could have had the effect of causing the pilot to fly far too low.

The aircraft

The aircraft, a Tupolev Tu-154M, construction number 90A837, was manufactured at Kuibyshev aviation plant (No. 18) on 29 June 1990 for the Polish Air Force[62] and had been assigned the tail number 101. It was one of two Tupolev Tu-154s that served as official government jets; the other with a tail number of 102 was a year younger and at the time of the accident it was being overhauled in the Aviakor aviation plant in Samara, Russia. The "101" aircraft had undergone a major overhaul in December 2009 and Aleksey Gusev, the head of the maintenance plant that carried out the work, told Polish TV that it should not have had technical problems.[63] The crash happened 138 flight hours after the most recent overhaul.[64]

Technical installations at Smolensk North Airport

Smolensk North Airport, a former military airbase now in mixed military-civilian use, is not equipped with a Western-style ILS (instrument landing system). The Polish airplane was modified to use the Western-style ILS.[65] A non-directional beacon system (NDB) is installed at the airport,[66] but such a system can be used only for a non-precision approach to the runway, as its antennas are situated on the opposite ends of the runway and thus give only basic directional information about a landing plane's position relative to the axis of the runway. As it is a navigational aid, not a landing aid, it remains the crew's responsibility to keep track of the plane's altitude.[26]

Airport and pilot communication

The airport's traffic control communicated with the pilots in Russian, and, according to one of the controllers, the Polish crew had problems communicating in this language.[24][67] However, according to Tomasz Pietrzak, the former commander of the Polish 36th Special Aviation Regiment, the pilot in charge of the flight Arkadiusz Protasiuk knew Russian perfectly.[24][67] Protasiuk had landed in Smolensk three days before the crash, when he was part of the crew bringing Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to the April 7 ceremony, and at the time no communication problems with ground control were reported.[68]

The airport, which should have normally been closed due to the severe conditions, was not declared closed as its management feared that this could cause a diplomatic incident.[69] According to the news agency Interfax, the pilot was told that Smolensk North Airport was enveloped in thick fog and strongly advised against landing, but still he decided to continue with the original flight plan to Smolensk and attempt a landing.[70] According to an interview with a flight controller Pavel Plusnin[71] it was suggested to the pilot that he land at an alternative airfield in Moscow or Minsk. According to Plusnin, the pilot said, that he would attempt one approach, and if landing was not possible, he would then divert to another airfield.[24]

Alexandr Aleshin, the First Deputy Chief of the Staff of the Russian Air Force, said that during the ensuing runway approach the plane increased its descent rate and went below the glide slope 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from the runway. Controllers instructed the pilot to abort the approach; when he did not, controllers advised the aircraft to fly to one of the suggested alternative landing points. According to Aleshin, this order was repeated several times but the crew continued with the approach and crashed. Transcripts of the flight recorders reveal that the order not to descend by the tower was given too late, the plane was already fifty meters lower than it should have been when told to abort landing. Up until that point, the tower was advising the plane was on the correct heading and path.[72]

Theft from victims

On 6 June 2010, it was reported that payments worth €1,400 had been made from a credit card found on the body of historian Andrzej Przewoźnik, one of the victims of the crash. Credit cards belonging to the politician Aleksandra Natalli-Świat were also missing, but not used in transactions.[73] On 8 June 2010, ITAR-TASS reported that four soldiers of Unit 06755 had been charged in connection with the theft, after being found in possession of three credit cards used to withdraw a total of руб60,345 .[74] A Polish spokesperson said that the first withdrawals using the cards had been made around two hours after the crash.[75] The Polish government admitted that the soldiers involved in the theft were probably conscripts, and that earlier reports blaming members of Russia's OMON forces for the theft had been a mistake.[76]

Notable passengers

Main article: List of casualties of the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash

In addition to Kaczyński and his wife Maria, on board were the military joint chiefs of staff (army, air force, navy), the national bank governor, a deputy foreign minister, head army chaplain, head of the National Security Bureau, three deputy parliament speakers, Olympic Committee head, head civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and widely known national lawmakers (including core members of the Law and Justice party), the Polish foreign ministry said.[77]

Political aftermath

In accordance with the Polish Constitution, on the President's death his duties were taken on by the Marshal of the Sejm (chairman of the lower house of the parliament)—currently Bronisław Komorowski, who thus became Acting President of Poland.[78] Within two weeks he was obliged to announce the date of the popular presidential election, to be held within a further 60 days on a weekend. Kaczyński was up for re-election in late September or early October, before the end of his first five-year term.[79]

Despite the deaths of the president and numerous officials, the crash is not expected to impair the functions of the Polish government, since no cabinet ministers were aboard the plane. The Polish Armed Forces were dealt a severe blow, however, since all of their senior commanding officers were killed; their duties were automatically taken over by respective deputy commanders, following standard contingency plans for such a situation.

The commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre was split up because of the political conflict between the Liberal government of prime minister Donald Tusk and Conservative president Kaczyński.[80] On 7 April, Tusk, along with government officials and members of his Civic Platform party, went to Katyn[81] on invitation from the prime minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin.[82] The official commemoration, organized by Polish Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, was scheduled on 10 April. Nevertheless, both ruling coalition and opposition were represented on the plane, with six and nine members of the Sejm, as well as one and two from the Senate, respectively, some of them well known in Poland. Many passengers were actively opposed to Tusk's policies, including:

The President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and former CIA analyst has written that political violence should not be ruled out under the circumstances of the plane crash.[90]

The Marshal of the Sejm, Bronisław Komorowski, had previously been announced as the Civic Platform's candidate in the presidential election.[91] He has suggested that the date of the elections should be decided by the parliamentary opposition,[92] with him acting merely to guarantee that the Constitution is respected.

On 17 April, one week after the crash, a memorial service, including a two-minute silence, was held to honour the victims of the crash. It was reported that over 100,000 mourners attended the event, held in Piłsudski Square; however, up to 1.5 million had been expected.[93][94]

State funeral

Main article: Death and state funeral of Lech Kaczyński and Maria Kaczyńska

The funeral service for the presidential couple took place in the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków on April 18. The couple was buried in a crypt below the cathedral, a place traditionally reserved for people considered to be heroes of Polish history.

Presidential election

Main article: Polish presidential election, 2010

The first round of the election to elect President Kaczyński's successor was held on June 20, 2010. Since no candidate obtained an absolute majority, a run-off will be held on July 4, 2010, between the two highest-polling candidates: the acting president Bronisław Komorowski, and the late president's brother Jarosław Kaczyński.

Reaction

Poland

Crowds on the Royal Route, Warsaw
Flowers and candles in front of Lublin town hall

The Polish public reacted with shock and grief to the disaster. Almost immediately after the news broke, tens of thousands of Poles assembled at the Presidential Palace to lay tributes, including flowers, wreaths, and candles.

A week of national mourning was declared in Poland.[95] Poles around the world mourned Kaczyński and set up shrines in the week that followed.[95][95][96][97] Many wept openly.[98] Flags flew at half mast in Poland.[99] Sports fixtures, including women's U-17 UEFA Championship elite qualifying phase game Poland versus Republic of Ireland in Ukraine, were postponed.[100][101] Concerts were cancelled, streets emptied, while cinemas, theatres, restaurants and shopping malls in Poland were closed for business.[101]

On 11 April, Kaczyński's body was flown to Warsaw on a military plane; tens of thousands of Poles gathered at both the airport tarmac and the streets of the city to pay their respects to the late president as his casket was driven by hearse to the Presidential Palace.[102] Afterwards, the casket was laid in state at the Palace.[103] The casket remained there throughout the week, until Kaczynski and his wife were laid to rest at the Wawel Cathedral a full week after the crash, on 18 April.

A public noon commemoration ceremony in Warsaw's Piłsudski Square was attended by more than 100,000 people on 17 April. Sirens sounded and bells tolled around the country.[104] A three-gun salute was fired.[105] People waved the flag of Poland complete with black ribbons and the names of the those who died in the crash were read out from a white stage decorated with a giant cross and photographs of the dead.[106] The crowds bowed their heads.[107]

On 18 April, the couple's caskets were driven at a slow pace through the streets of Warsaw, passing the city hall and a museum dedicated to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising which Kaczyński favoured.[108] The funeral ceremony began at 2 p.m. local time (12:00 UTC) with a Mass held at Krakow's St Mary's Basilica, with thousands attending. Archbishop of Kraków Stanisław Dziwisz presided over the ceremony, and addressed President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev personally: "The sympathy and help we have received from Russian brothers has breathed new life into a hope for closer relations and reconciliation between our two Slavic nations".[109]

Former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski told TVN24 that "It [Katyń] is a cursed place. It sends shivers down my spine. First the flower of the Second Polish Republic is murdered in the forests around Smolensk, now the elite of the Third Polish Republic die in this tragic plane crash when approaching Smolensk North Airport."[110]

According to the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk: "The contemporary world has not seen such a tragedy".[111]

Former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who had himself suffered injuries in a helicopter crash while in office, said that Poland's aircraft were known to be in need of replacement, even though there is no evidence that it was anything wrong with this airplane. "I once said that we will one day meet in a funeral procession, and that is when we will take the decision to replace the aircraft fleet," he said.[112]

Russia

Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in church
Dmitry Medvedev addresses the people of Poland. (transcript in English and in Polish).
Improvised memorial at the Russian crash site

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed their condolences to the acting President and speaker of the parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski.[113] President Medvedev also announced that 12 April 2010 would be a national day of mourning in Russia.[114] Chairman of International Committee of the State Duma Konstantin Kosachev said that "Katyn claimed yet more victims". Chairman of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov has expressed condolences.[115]

Russians and foreigners laid flowers and candles at the Polish embassy in Moscow,[116][117] and at the Polish consulates-general in Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad.[116]

After the plane crash, the state-owned mass market Russia Channel broadcast the film Katyń for the second time in Russia.[118] The film, which was not distributed in Russia,[119] was first shown in Russia on another state-owned channel, the less popular Kultura Channel on 2 April 2010.[120] The first showing of Katyń was a political event, which was followed by a serious discussion of Polish-Russian relations by politicians and public figures,[121] and drew high audience numbers for the smaller channel,[122] with an estimated 100 million Russian viewers.[118]

While Polish commentators saw Putin's participation in the April 7th ceremony as a symbolic gesture, they were touched when Putin and Tusk paid tribute and laid flowers at the site of the plane crash. Tusk knelt and briefly hid his face in his hands, then stood up as Putin patted him on the shoulder. The two hugged, then gave a mutual press conference on the investigation into the crash. Polish commentators noted this was a human gesture, and a display of emotion that Poles had longed to see from their eastern neighbours.[123]

On Sunday, holding a bouquet of red roses, Putin is said to have appeared genuinely shaken as he escorted Kaczyński's body to a plane to be flown to Warsaw. Later Putin said in a Polish television interview: "This is of course first and foremost Poland's tragedy and that of the Polish people, but it is also our tragedy. We mourn with you".[119]

The Russian response has been noted favourably by Poles, with talk of a thawing in the relationship between Russia and Poland.[124] Witold Waszczykowski, deputy head of Poland's National Security Bureau, told Reuters, "We did not expect this gentle, kind approach, this personal involvement from Putin. Naturally it will have a positive impact on the relationship between our countries." Jerzy Bahr, the Polish ambassador to Russia also stated, "We can sense Russian solidarity at every step of the way."[117]

International

See also: International response to the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash

Many countries, international organizations and other entities expressed sorrow and condolences to the people of Poland over the crash. A national day of mourning was proclaimed in the European Union and several countries.[125] Victims of the airplane crash were also commemorated by a minute of silence before several football matches throughout Europe.[126][127]

Some concern arose that Kaczyński's funeral would have to be delayed as a consequence of volcanic ash emanating from Iceland and the resulting air travel disruption in Europe.[128] Only one airport in the country was open, and several international dignitaries were unable to attend.[129][130][131] The funeral nonetheless went ahead as scheduled.[132]

NATO is reportedly concerned over the possible compromise of many of its secret codes and communications procedures to the Russian government. Many of the Polish government and military officials on the aircraft apparently carried secret NATO communication key codes and devices which were recovered by the Russians after the crash.[133]

See also

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References

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