Report showing evidence of explosion on Smolensk plane coming 'soon': official

Speaking in Toruń, northern Poland, at a conference about the crash, Antoni Macierewicz said the report was an extensive examination of the technical aspects of the Smolensk disaster.

"April 10, 2010, saw the deaths of the Polish elites on board the Tu-154 in Smolensk as a result of the plane being destroyed by an explosion," Macierewicz said.

"The evidence, its analysis, and its presentation will be in the technical report," he added.

Then-President Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria, and 94 others – mainly top political and military leaders – died on April 10, 2010, when their plane crashed while trying to land at the Smolensk airport in western Russia.

A new commission investigating the crash was set up after the Law and Justice party came to power in late 2015.

Last year the commission said the plane was probably destroyed by a mid-air explosion and that Russian air traffic controllers deliberately misled Polish pilots about their location as the presidential plane was approaching the runway of the Smolensk military airport.

Law and Justice has long challenged an official report into the crash issued by the previous Polish government which cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport.

A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP