'VIP syndrome' and pilot error blamed for Polish crash

Aviation experts speculated that the pilots of the ill-fated Polish flight may have been ordered to land by the Polish President in a case of "VIP-passenger syndrome".

Russian authorities yesterday insisted that pilot error was behind the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski, as Polish investigation teams arrived at the crash scene to carry out their own inquiry.

Igor Levitin, the Russian Minister of Transport, said the "black box" flight recorders had been recovered in good condition.

Russian investigators said last night that readings from the flight recorders indicated that there were no technical problems with the plane.

All the deciphering work is being done in collaboration with Polish officials.

Alexander Alyoshin, deputy chief of the Russian Air Force's general staff, said the pilot had ignored several orders from air-traffic control not to land at Smolensk because of thick fog.

"The head of the air-traffic control group gave a command to the crew to put the aircraft into the horizontal position, and when the crew did not implement this order, several times gave orders to divert to an alternative airport. Despite this, the crew continued the descent."

The airport is a small, military facility that does not usually accept civilian craft.

"It's a clear case of VIP-passenger syndrome," flight safety expert Viktor Timoshkin told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"Air-traffic control told him to take the plane to Moscow or Minsk. I'm certain that the pilot will have told the President about this, and got a firm reply that the plane must land in Smolensk."

The ageing Tupolev 154 plane plunged into forested land just short of the runway at Smolensk Airport at the weekend, killing all 96 on board, including Kaczynski, his wife, and dozens of top political and military officials.

They had been travelling to Smolensk to attend a memorial service at nearby Katyn to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and others by Soviet forces.

Last week, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk to a memorial service at Katyn, but not Kaczynski.

The weekend service had been organised to allow Kaczynski to mark the anniversary also, and it is possible that Kaczynski ordered the plane to land in Smolensk as any diversion would have meant that he and the others would miss the ceremony.

The Polish press reported that 36 minutes before the crash Kaczynski called his twin brother Jaroslaw from the plane, to tell him that everything was going to plan and he would soon arrive in Smolensk.

Russian authorities have agreed to a request from Polish colleagues not to begin the clean-up at the wreckage site until the middle of the week.

Officials in Moscow said that two Polish delegations would carry out their own investigations.

One set of 27 experts was headed for Smolensk to study the wreckage, while another 35 would stay in Moscow, where the bodies of all the victims except the President have been sent.

Yesterday, the coffin carrying Kaczynski was placed on board a Polish military jet in a solemn ceremony at Smolensk Airport.

Putin saw off the coffin, which was draped in a Polish flag, as a guard of honour was formed and a military orchestra played. Relatives of the dead began arriving in Moscow, where they would begin the task of identifying the bodies.

Millions turned out to mourn in Warsaw as the President's body was ceremoniously returned. Waiting to receive it were Tusk and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a former Prime Minister.

The President's daughter, Marta, knelt before her father's coffin sobbing and pressing her forehead against its side.

The coffin was then carried by a squad of Polish soldiers marching in slow time to a waiting hearse, and was driven to the capital's presidential palace.

The President's body is expected to lie in state for several days before a full state funeral is held on Saturday night NZT.

Tens of thousands of Warsaw residents lined the roads from the airport to the city centre to pay tribute.

The presidential palace rapidly turned into a shrine for the victims. Candles in glass holders and thousands of red and white flowers covered the pavements in front of the building.

Tusk, who reportedly burst into tears when informed of the crash, described the incident as "the worst national political tragedy Poland has experienced since World War II".

Witnesses said the Tu-154 plane came in at a strange angle through the fog, with one wing tipped towards the ground. The wing clipped trees as it came in far too low, and as a result ended up crashing into the ground.

One of the policemen charged with guarding the crash site said it was a scene of unspeakable horror.

"I didn't see anything so horrific, even in Chechnya. Everywhere there were parts of the aircraft, fragments of bodies. I only saw a couple of whole bodies. The rest was just bits of human bones caught up in the trees."

There have been more than 60 crashes involving Tu-154s in the past 40 years, six of them in the past five years.

But the head of an aviation plant in Russia that overhauled the Polish presidential plane last year said it had been refitted with new electronic and navigation equipment and repairs were carried out to its engines.

- INDEPENDENT, AP