- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk
WARSAW, January 5 (KATAKAMI / RIA Novosti) - Last year's crash of a Polish presidential plane in western Russia was caused by the crew's decision to land, but Russian air traffic controllers are also to blame, the Polish prime minister told the TVN24 channel.
"The disaster would have been avoided, if not for the decision to land. But putting the blame solely on pilots would be too simple," Donald Tusk said, adding that numerous causes were behind the tragedy, including a permission to land from Russian air traffic controllers.
"This is one of the reasons why a report from IAC [Interstate Aviation Committee] does not seem 100% fair to me," he added.
- RIP. The death toll included the country's President and wife, its central bank head and the country's military chief along with other senior government and military figures.
In mid-December Tusk announced that Poland had a number of problems with Russia's report on the causes of the plane crash and could not accept the document in its present form.
The worn-out Tu-154 crashed in thick fog near the Russian city of Smolensk April 10 while carrying then president Lech Kaczynski and other senior Polish officials. All 96 people onboard - 88 passengers and eight crew members - died instantly. (*)
