BERLIN — A Polish government report Friday blamed the poor training of a Polish flight crew, as well as Russian air- traffic controllers, for the 2010 crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 others.
The report had the immediate effect of forcing out Poland’s defense minister, whose office was responsible for training the pilots.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a news conference in Warsaw, Poland’s capital, on Friday that Defense Minister Bogdan Klich had resigned Thursday night in anticipation of the report, which singled out organizational failings in the Polish military.
The 300-page report said the Polish “aircraft commander, co-pilot and navigator had been trained hastily, haphazardly and in violation of the respective training regulations.”
It also said that the Russian air-traffic controllers had erroneously confirmed to the pilots that the jet, a Tupolev 154, was well-positioned for landing at the Smolensk North Airport. “(That) might have affirmed the crew’s belief that the approach was proceeding correctly although the airplane was actually outside the permissible deviation margin,” it said.
The long-awaited investigation followed a report by Russian officials in January. It had placed the blame squarely on the Poles, saying that the crew was under pressure, perhaps by the president himself, to land the plane despite dense fog, and that they ignored warnings by Russian air-traffic controllers.
That report had led to angry denials in Poland.
