Polish Ministry of Defense discloses
what happened in the aftermath of the Smolensk crash
Published: October 2, 2016
The Polish Ministry of National Defence (MON) released an official statement, in which excerpts from the memos prepared in the aftermath of the Smolensk crash on April 10, 2010, were published. The MON full statement follows:
With regards to the statements issued by Jerzy Miller, former Chairman of PKBLWLLP (Polish Committee for Investigation of National Aviation Accidents), and the PO (Polish Civic Platform Party) officials, who present a false picture of the events following the Smolensk crash, and who in particular strongly deny the fact that the Polish authorities undertook no investigation of their own, presented below are notes prepared by Colonel Mirosław Grochowski for MON on April 12, 13, 14 and 15, 2010:
1. April 12, 2010, 9.35am:
“Edmund Klich inquired about the permits for the Commission members for permanent access to the crash site. The Russian response was that the Polish investigative team will accompany the Russian representatives in their inquiries, and no individual permits will be issued. Colonel Grochowski requested access to the original data recordings, only to be informed that all the data was in the Prosecution Office, and the request for access to the original data should be made directly to the prosecutors.”
2. April 13, 2010, 10.15am:
“(...) despite the agreements made the day before, Polish investigators were not allowed to participate in the Commission for Investigation of Aviation Accidents’ briefing, arranged for 9.30am.
“(...) General Banetov informed that from the wreckage of the aircraft an aggregator was recovered. (...) This aggregator was a data recorder of ATM QAR type (operational), and Polish investigators were not present during its recovery. The meeting concluded with Edmund Klich informing General Banetov that the Polish investigators were yet to receive their permits that would authorise the team to access the crash site, and the airport area. At present, the Polish team is restricted to gathering materials released by the Russian team due to the lack of full access into the Commission’s works.“
3. On both April 14th and 15th, 2010, members of the Polish investigative team had a restricted access, and were even barred from accessing, the crash site or the wreckage, that being despite being in possession of permits granted by Russian officials on April 14, 2010.
April 14, 2010
The reconnaissance of flights’ security measures: Taking photographs or recording conversations was banned at the entry to the site. Therefore, gathering evidence was limited to a conversation with the site commander and the observation of the outside radio beacons.
4. Another issue between the Polish-Russian cooperation occurred on April 15, 2010, when the radar test flights were planned. April 15, 2010:
A. On April 15, 2010, claiming a risk to work safety within the ground control area, the Russian team barred the Polish investigators from being present during the radar test flights (which would have allowed the Polish team to observe the NEZL signal means). Thus, on April 15, 2010, the Polish team issued a request that the Polish representatives participated in the test flights by listening to radio communications.” (The request was rejected).
B. Asked whether the records of telephone communications from the ground area control would be released, Mr Morozov replied that indeed they would be but as digital copies. I explained that we would require access to the original records, and not digital copies. I was informed that this would be problematic, because the originals had been secured by the Prosecution and the Russian Commission needed to check whether the originals were complete, which would be a time-consuming process.
- Asked whether we could access camera records from industrial units nearby the meteorological station, Russians, seemingly puzzled, explained that there were no cameras there...;
- Asked if we could access materials from the day of the Smolensk crash, recorded by cameras attached to the radar indicator recorder, the Russians explained that they were unsure as to the existence of such materials, and that they would investigate further.
- Asked if there was a procedure in place for VIP landings, the chairman seemed not to understand the question. (...)
On both April 14th and 15th, 2010, members of the Polish investigative team had a restricted access, and were even barred from accessing, the crash site or the wreckage, that despite being in possession of permits granted by Russian officials on April 14, 2010.”
On April 16, 2010, the Russian team announced that the wreckage of the plane had been transferred from the crash site to a storage area.
Click on the thumbnails below to view screen dumps from the detectors used to examine the wreckage and seats from the Polish president's plane crash in Smolensk. An "X" denotes the presence of the detected explosive substance and its type. The underlined Polish word "Probka" or "probka" in the screen dump 1 and 2, means "Sample"
Why did they all fly on the same plane?
Synopsis: January 12, 2013, Toronto, Canada. The wife of the late Deputy-Minister of Culture Tomasz Merta: "What I am about to tell you now, are suspicions - and not even my own - but, rather the [suspicions of the] individuals in the inner-circles of the [Polish] military... I heard a statement that was made - but, I am not taking any responsibility for how credible, or not credible it is. [I heard that] had the generals and journalists' not been re-assigned to different aircraft, it wouldn't have been the Tupolev [Tu-154M], but rather the Casa [transport aircraft] that would have been taken out.
Because the Generals were no longer onboard the Casa, there was no reason for it to get airborne. And for this reason it was the Yak[-40] that flew off to Smolensk. This Casa [transport aircraft] was never examined in any way. It was not subject to any examination. Aside from a single note in the deposition given to the military, no one was interested why this aircraft didn't fly [to Smolensk]. Perhaps, this is someones crazy phantasy, but perhaps it isn't.
Some [Polish] military personnel had suggested, that it [the Casa] had to stay behind at the Okecie military [tarmack], so that the explosives could be removed from it - because they were no longer needed [...] I am only repeating what I was told."
"Disarming" Explosives ...
It is worth for us to retrace the entire process of "disarming" the case of explosive substances at the crash site. It all started with the publication of Cezary Gmyz in "Rzeczpospolita" on October 30, 2012, and information that the detectors, which were used by experts in Smolensk (in late September and October) showed traces of TNT and nitroglycerine.
As it turned out, the journalist was also reporting about the indication of Hexogen. The storm broke. The prosecution denied the publication, and ultimately, the editor-in-chief of "Rzeczpospolita," Cezary Gmyz and two other journalists lost their jobs. The entire editorial staff of one of Poland’s most popular weeklies, "Uważam Rze", was also silenced.
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