Polish investigators probing 2010 jet wreckage in Russia

Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement earlier this month that it was granting access to Polish officials at the end of May in response to a request from authorities in Warsaw.

No further details of the visit have been made available to the media. It was only known that the Polish investigators were expected to probe the wreckage under the supervision of Russian officials, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

In a previous such visit, a group of Polish investigators in September last year travelled to Russia to view the wreckage from the fatal crash, which killed Poland’s then-President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others on April 10, 2010.

Top Polish officials last month took part in events to mark the ninth anniversary of the crash—a disaster that scarred the national psyche and is still a source of controversy and recriminations.

The head of a Polish commission reinvestigating the 2010 crash said in April that a probe had shown those on board died as a result of an explosion.

Poland’s ruling conservatives have long challenged an official report into the causes of the disaster issued by the previous 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 has placed all the blame on the Poles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2017 denied Polish suggestions that the 2010 air crash was the result of a Russian conspiracy.

Russia has refused to return the wreckage of the presidential plane to Poland, claiming that it is continuing to investigate the crash.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR