[lg policy] Language barrier and a president determined to land – theories swirl over Polish air disaster

[Harold Schiffman]

Language barrier and a president determined to land – theories swirl
over Polish air disaster

Pilots' lack of Russian led to tragedy says controller as technical
problems with plane ruled out



Kate Connolly in Warsaw guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 April 2010 21.19 BST


Language problems between Russian air traffic controllers and Polish
pilots, and pressure from high-ranking plane passengers, may have
contributed to the crash on Saturday in which 96 people – including
the Polish president – were killed, it was revealed today. The Russian
air traffic controller Pavel Plusnin – who was the last person to talk
to the crew of President Lech Kaczynski's Tupolev 154 before it
crashed – said he had difficulties understanding the crew who he said
spoke poor Russian. "Numbers were hard for them so I could not
determine their altitude," he told a Russian news portal. But Poland's
former prime minister told the Guardian he thought Kaczynski – who was
determined to reach Smolensk where he was due to attend a memorial
service on the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre – may himself
have contributed to the accident by pressuring the pilots to land in
dense fog.

The former social democrat prime minister Leszek Miller said: "The
president had wanted so much to be there. The pilot knew this and so
they accepted the risk and in the process they lost everything," he
said. He said Poland would struggle to replace the victims, who
included dozens of senior officials. "When people die, it's often said
they're irreplaceable," he said. "But in this case I really believe it
is going to be very hard to find people to take the places of these
talented people."

Accident investigators have ruled out technical problems in the
26-year-old aircraft which crashed into dense trees, and yesterday
said human error was to blame. Poland's chief prosecutor Andrzej
Seremet said from initial interviews held with air traffic
controllers, investigators had "concluded there were no conditions for
landing". The plane tried to land despite being advised by air traffic
control "not to do so" he said.

Seremet added that flight recordings would be listened to closely to
determine whether the pilots came under pressure from the presidential
entourage to continue with the landing. But he stressed "at present
there is no such information". As investigators continued to probe the
cause of the accident, an increasing number of Poles were asking how
so many senior figures – including the country's entire military
chiefs of staff, the head of national security, the head of the
national bank, many of the government's top advisers and 18 MPs – had
been allowed to travel on a single aircraft.

"How is it possible that all these top people came to be travelling on
the same plane?" military expert Wojciech Luczak said. Acting
President Bronislaw Komorowski, a member of prime minister Donald
Tusk's centrist Civic Platform (PO) who had been expected to beat the
rightwing Kaczynski in October's scheduled presidential election,
moved yesterday to start replacing some of the officials who died in
the crash.

"The first task I am going to set for the new National Security Bureau
chief is a review of the rules for travel of top military officials,"
he told reporters. Meanwhile, in Moscow the process of identifying the
remaining 95 bodies continued. Only 14 bodies had been immediately
identifiable after the crash. Most of the other victims had been too
badly charred and are being identified through DNA testing. Nine
bodies are still missing. Polish military planes were due to be
dispatched to Moscow to bring back the victims' bodies by Thursday at
the latest. Kaczynski's body, which was returned to Warsaw on Sunday,
will lie in state in Warsaw from today until a state funeral is held
on Saturday, possibly as a joint service for all 96 victims.

Polish workplaces observed a minute's silence yesterday, while many of
Warsaw's school pupils were allowed to visit the presidential palace
to sign books of condolence.Komorowski, the interim president, said he
wanted the funeral, which is due to be held on Warsaw's Pilsudski
Square, to be an "expression of national unity".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/12/language-president-theories-polish-air-disaster/print

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