MOSCOW, April 3 (RAPSI) – Three Russian nationals, who had controlled in 2010 the flight of then President of Poland Lech Kaczynski’s plane, are suspected of intended provoking the air crash, Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported Monday citing the country’s Deputy Prosecutor General Marek Pasionek.
Two air traffic controllers and “a third person”, who was in a flight control center at the moment of the fatal crash, are among suspects, the newspaper reports.
Spokesman of Russian President Dmitry Peskov commented on this statement saying that “it is impossible to accept such findings.”
A Polish Tu-154 plane carrying then President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and a large group of high-ranking officials crashed near Smolensk due to thick fog on April 10, 2010, killing 96 people.
The Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee issued a final report in late July 2011, saying that the crew’s decision not to divert to an alternate airfield was a direct cause of the plane crash. Other causes were inadequate flight operations and training standards.
Poland, which carried out a separate investigation, blamed the Russian air traffic controllers for the tragedy. In 2015, a representative of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of Poland said that air controllers were suspected of unintended causing the crash.