Moscow:
For a few terrifying seconds before a Polish jet crashed in western Russia on Saturday, its crew members knew they were about to die, Poland's chief prosecutor said on Thursday, as investigators in both countries analyzed the contents of the plane's black boxes.
"One could say that the crew was aware of the inevitability of the coming catastrophe, if only due to the plane shaking after the wings hit the trees, which we are certain happened," the prosecutor, Andrzej Seremet, told a Polish radio station.
The plane crashed in thick fog Saturday, killing Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others, including many top civilian and military officials. Russian officials said the crew had been strongly warned about the poor conditions, leading to speculation that the pilot was pressed to land so the dignitaries would not be late for a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.
That theory was bolstered by an episode from 2008, when Kaczynski ordered a pilot to land in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital. The pilot defied him, saying the conditions were too dangerous, and diverted to another airport.
Seremet has said there is no evidence that the pilot flying to the Katyn ceremony was pressed, and an official with Russia's investigative committee said data from the black box did not reflect that possibility.
"The flight recorder, whose tapes are being deciphered, did not register any pressure on crew members," said the official, in an interview with the Interfax news service on Thursday.
The official said that the pilot was aware "well in advance" that he was headed to an airfield without a modern aerial navigation system. One possibility, he said, was that the pilot was not aware that the plane, a TU-154, loses altitude faster than usual when it is descending at more than 20 feet per second.
Anatoly Muravyov, an air traffic controller who was on duty that morning, told the newspaper Komsomoskaya Pravda that the crew had begun a landing without permission when air traffic controllers warned them about the weather and recommended that they land at another airport.
When the crew did not change course, he said, "all we could do was to continue to guide the plane and watch." He said he attributed the crash to "weather conditions, maybe crew error, uncontrolled loss of altitude and the pilot's desire to land the plane at any costs."
Tatyana Anodina, the head of the Interstate Aviation Committee, which oversees aviation in the former Soviet Union, denied reports that the pilot made three or four attempts to land, and said he made only one. She urged the public not to trust unofficial sources on the cause of the crash.
In Poland, meanwhile, some members of the late president's Law and Justice Party remained suspicious of the Russian inquiry. Jolanta Szczypinska, one of the party's senior members, called for a nonpartisan, international commission to investigate.
Szczypinska, who gave up her seat on the flight just hours before it took off, said she had been informed by Polish journalists at the crash site that Russian authorities demanded that witnesses who had been waiting to greet the dignitaries hand over their cameras and cell phones.
"I have flown many times on that plane and I knew the pilots, and I am convinced that it wasn't a pilot's mistake that led to this tragedy," she said in an interview Thursday. "It is disturbing the way the Russian side has been communicating, issuing statements, and how they had their version of events from the beginning. It is very strange, and we expect answers."
"One could say that the crew was aware of the inevitability of the coming catastrophe, if only due to the plane shaking after the wings hit the trees, which we are certain happened," the prosecutor, Andrzej Seremet, told a Polish radio station.
The plane crashed in thick fog Saturday, killing Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others, including many top civilian and military officials. Russian officials said the crew had been strongly warned about the poor conditions, leading to speculation that the pilot was pressed to land so the dignitaries would not be late for a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.
That theory was bolstered by an episode from 2008, when Kaczynski ordered a pilot to land in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital. The pilot defied him, saying the conditions were too dangerous, and diverted to another airport.
Seremet has said there is no evidence that the pilot flying to the Katyn ceremony was pressed, and an official with Russia's investigative committee said data from the black box did not reflect that possibility.
"The flight recorder, whose tapes are being deciphered, did not register any pressure on crew members," said the official, in an interview with the Interfax news service on Thursday.
The official said that the pilot was aware "well in advance" that he was headed to an airfield without a modern aerial navigation system. One possibility, he said, was that the pilot was not aware that the plane, a TU-154, loses altitude faster than usual when it is descending at more than 20 feet per second.
Anatoly Muravyov, an air traffic controller who was on duty that morning, told the newspaper Komsomoskaya Pravda that the crew had begun a landing without permission when air traffic controllers warned them about the weather and recommended that they land at another airport.
When the crew did not change course, he said, "all we could do was to continue to guide the plane and watch." He said he attributed the crash to "weather conditions, maybe crew error, uncontrolled loss of altitude and the pilot's desire to land the plane at any costs."
Tatyana Anodina, the head of the Interstate Aviation Committee, which oversees aviation in the former Soviet Union, denied reports that the pilot made three or four attempts to land, and said he made only one. She urged the public not to trust unofficial sources on the cause of the crash.
In Poland, meanwhile, some members of the late president's Law and Justice Party remained suspicious of the Russian inquiry. Jolanta Szczypinska, one of the party's senior members, called for a nonpartisan, international commission to investigate.
Szczypinska, who gave up her seat on the flight just hours before it took off, said she had been informed by Polish journalists at the crash site that Russian authorities demanded that witnesses who had been waiting to greet the dignitaries hand over their cameras and cell phones.
"I have flown many times on that plane and I knew the pilots, and I am convinced that it wasn't a pilot's mistake that led to this tragedy," she said in an interview Thursday. "It is disturbing the way the Russian side has been communicating, issuing statements, and how they had their version of events from the beginning. It is very strange, and we expect answers."
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