Polish President and Army Chief of Staff dead

[Peter Lemkin]

This "passengers in the cockpit" leak is desperate spin trying to blame the Polish politicians on board for the crash.

Note the byeline to the piece below (my emphasis): "Russian officials identify non-crew member in cockpit of Polish plane, fuelling theory that officials pressured pilots to land"

It is really reallydesperate stuff worthy of an Alastair Campbell or a Joseph Goebbels...

'Passengers in cockpit' in Polish president's plane crash

Russian officials identify non-crew member in cockpit of Polish plane, fuelling theory that officials pressured pilots to land

Investigators today revealed that there were passengers in the cockpit of the Polish government plane that crashed in Russia last month, fuelling speculation that the disaster may have been partly caused when high-ranking officials on board pressured pilots to land amid thick fog.

Some 96 people died in the crash last month, including the Polish president Lech Kaczinski, his wife and dozens of Polish military and political leaders.

Russian officials said they had identified at least one person who was not a crew member as the plane descended in thick fog towards Smolensk airport. They said there was evidence that another passenger – or possibly passengers – was also present.

"It was established that there were people in the cockpit who were not crew members. The voice of one of them has been identified, while the other, or others, will be identified by the Polish side," said a Russian interstate aviation committee official, Tatyana Anodina.

Russian officials said they had finished transcribing data from flight recorders retrieved from the crash scene. They said the Soviet-designed Tupulov aircraft and its navigation system were working perfectly. But they suggested the crew did not have regular flight training, and may have lacked experience.

It is so far unclear why the pilots ignored warnings from Russian air traffic control and went ahead with an attempt to land at a military airport in western Russia. Poland's investigation envoy Edmund Klich said it was unclear whether the non-crew voices heard in recordings influenced the crew to land despite warnings of bad conditions and poor visibility. The crew had been briefed about the difficult weather conditions and told they could divert to Moscow or Minsk, Russian officials said.

Last month Poland's former prime minister Leszek Miller told the Guardian he thought Kaczynski may have personally contributed to the accident by insisting the pilots land in Smolensk. Kaczynski had been determined to reach Smolensk to attend a memorial service on the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when Soviet secret police executed more than 20,000 Polish officers, Miller said.

"The president so wanted to be there. The pilot knew this and so they accepted the risk and in the process lost everything," the former PM said. Others have suggested that Kaczynski – a bitter critic of the Russian government – may have suspected the advice from air traffic control to divert was a Kremlin ploy designed to ruin the Katyn memorial event.

In August 2008, during Russia's war with Georgia, Kaczynski had a heated row with a pilot flying his plane to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, according to Polish reports. The pilot refused to land and instead diverted the aircraft to neighbouring Azerbaijan. The president told the pilot his refusal would have consequences, allegedly declaring: "If someone decides to be a pilot he cannot be fearful."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may...rs-cockpit

I agree Jan....unless the Ruskies hand over the 'black [really red] boxes to the Poles and let them do the investigation, the truth will never be known....as is [I think] the M.O. of Putin and Co. Even IF some from the passenger area spoke to the pilots, it would NOT explain a crash! I call the whole episode Katyn II - Both were Russian mass murder....:eviltongue: