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Poland drafting request to study Smolensk plan wreckage: report

PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea 07.03.2017 16:51
The Polish prosecutor's office is drafting a request to Moscow to allow Polish investigators study the wreckage of the presidential plane which crashed in 2010, RMF FM has reported.
The site of the Polish presidential plane crash in 2010. Photo: Wikimedia CommonsThe site of the Polish presidential plane crash in 2010. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The radio station said that it will likely “take some time before such a trip becomes possible”, adding that authorities in Poland are analysing the legal framework of such a request.

The request will be sent “soon”, the station said, adding that its results “all depend on the Russian response to this request by Polish prosecutors”.

The Polish investigators want to photograph various parts of the wreckage, as well as describe and label the debris. They would take specialised software and equipment out to where the wreckage is currently being stored in Russia.

In April 2010, the Polish presidential plane crashed while trying to land in fog in Smolensk, western Russia, killing then-President Lech Kaczyński and the 95 others on board.

Despite requests, the wreckage of the plane has not been handed over to Poland.

Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in late 2015, has reopened a probe into the disaster.

PiS 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. (rg/pk)

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