The Polish commission investigating the April 2010 crash of the POLAND AIR FORCE Tupolev TU154M in Smolensk, Russia, said today that Russian air traffic controllers were under pressure, made a number of errors and failed to warn the Polish Pilots that they were off course. They also revealed that the signal “Horizon,” which basically means “pull the plane up, you won't make it,” was given too late by controllers and that the Polish crew was not informed of the extremely bad weather conditions at Smolensk or of the alternative Airports at which they could have landed safely. It did not say exactly who had exerted pressure on Russian traffic controllers at the time when President Lech Kaczynski's plane crashed, killing the Polish President and 95 others. Poland's Interior Minister Jerzy Miller said he hoped lessons would be learned from the crash."I believe it is not only in Polish but also in Russian interests, in the interest of everyone who will be landing at Severny Airport, to draw conclusions from the tragedy," he said. Russia's MAK released its report on January 12 citing Pilot Error as the main cause of the April 10, 2010 crash, that occurred when the presidential plane hit trees while landing in thick fog near Smolensk. Miller said, in particular, it was inappropriate to speculate on what Polish Air Force chief Andrzej Blasik was doing onboard and whether his presence might or might not have affected the crew. The MAK report asserted that Gen. Blasik's presence in the cockpit was a strong contributory factor to the crash and that it "had a psychological impact on the crewmembers and influenced their decision to land in any conditions". "We were surprised by the mention of Gen. Blasik's name because it is a passenger's name. In cases like that passengers are not subject to the kind of analysis that was conducted and made public by the Russians," Miller said.
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