Russian ATC traffic controllers gave incorrect and confusing landing instructions to pilots of a plane that crashed and killed Poland’s president and 95 other people, a Polish report said yesterday - a finding that could further strain ties between the countries.
But the report into the crash apportions most blame on Polish officials and procedures. Poland’s defense minister, Bogdan Klich, whose ministry oversaw the training of the crew of the 2010 flight, resigned yesterday.
The report challenges a Russian aviation commission report published in January that put sole blame for the disaster on Polish officials, striking Poles as an attempt to avoid any responsibility for the crash in heavy fog at a rudimentary airport near Smolensk , 220 miles southwest of Moscow. Since then, Poles have eagerly awaited their own experts’ report, hoping it would create a more balanced picture.The accident on April 10, 2010, killed dozens of senior officials along with the president and his wife.

As key causes of the crash it cites incorrect positioning of the Tupolev-154 during an attempted landing due to insufficient training of the pilots.
It also cites a lack of proper cooperation among the crew and an overly slow reaction to an automatic terrain warning system that warned pilots they were flying too low.
Incorrect information from the airport’s ATC traffic control tower on the plane’s position also prevented the crew from realizing they were making mistakes, it said.