Accident occurred Saturday, April 10, 2010 in Smolensk, Russia
Aircraft: TUPOLEV TU154, registration:
Injuries: 89 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. The foreign authority was the source of this information.
On April 10, 2010, about 0656 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a Tupolev Tu-154M, Tail Number 101, operated by the Polish Air Force as flight PLF101, crashed during approach to the Military Aerodrom Smolensk "Severnyi", Russia. All 89 passengers and 7 flightcrew were killed, including the President of Poland. The airplane was destroyed by impact and postcrash fire.
Following the accident, the governments of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Poland concluded a bilateral agreement that the regional international independent safety investigation organization, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), would conduct the investigation. Although the airplane was operated as a "state" aircraft, by the mutual agreement, the investigation was conducted following the guidance provided in ICAO Annex 13 Standards and Recommended Practices. As the United States was state of design and manufacture for the TAWS and FMS units, the NTSB was requested to support the investigation activity.
For more information on the accident investigation, contact MAK at mak@mak.ru.
The remains of an MP who died in the April 2010 Smolensk plane disaster have been exhumed at the request of his daughter.
Krakow-born Zbigniew Wassermann was an MP for the national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS).
According to the prosecutor's office, the undertaking has not been made due to any doubts that Mr Wassermann was incorrectly identified.
Rather, the examination is being conducted due to “doubts [raised by his daughter Malgorzata] concerning the assertions contained in the documentation of the forensic examination received from Russia.”
Prosecutors added that “out of consideration for the victim's closest family” precise details of the examination would not be discussed.
However, the work is expected to be completed in a matter of days.
The case of Zbigniew Wassermann is not unique. Indeed, the family of Przemyslaw Gosiewski, another Law and Justice MP who perished in Smolensk, has filed for a similar undertaking to be carried out.
After inconsistencies were discovered between old Polish hospital records and the results of a Russian autopsy, the Polish miliary's prosecutor's office decided to exhume the body of the late Law and Justice MP Zbigniew Wassermann in Kraków on Monday morning.
Zbigniew Wassermann; photo - PAP archives
Krakow-born Zbigniew Wassermann was an MP for the national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS).
According to the prosecutor's office, the undertaking has not been made due to any doubts that Mr Wassermann was incorrectly identified.
Rather, the examination is being conducted due to “doubts [raised by his daughter Malgorzata] concerning the assertions contained in the documentation of the forensic examination received from Russia.”
Prosecutors added that “out of consideration for the victim's closest family” precise details of the examination would not be discussed.
However, the work is expected to be completed in a matter of days.
The case of Zbigniew Wassermann is not unique. Indeed, the family of Przemyslaw Gosiewski, another Law and Justice MP who perished in Smolensk, has filed for a similar undertaking to be carried out.
After inconsistencies were discovered between old Polish hospital records and the results of a Russian autopsy, the Polish miliary's prosecutor's office decided to exhume the body of the late Law and Justice MP Zbigniew Wassermann in Kraków on Monday morning.
Mr Wassermann died in the April 10, 2010 airplane crash in Smolensk, Russia, that killed a total of 97 people, including President Lech Kaczyński.
The request to exhume Mr Wassermann's body was made by his daughter, Małgorzata Wassermann.
When interviewed by TVN24 reporters she said that, “there is no doubt that the document from the Russian autopsy is a fraud.”
She said that her father had undergone a serious operation 21 years ago which resulted in the removal of some of his organs. According to the Russian autopsy, however, her father still had those organs, she said.
Investigators then looked at Mr Wassermann's medical records before deicding to exhume his body.
Ms Wassermann could not reveal what the Russians had written as the cause of her father's death, explaining that the information was sensitive as it formed part of the investigation.
