Calls caused crash?

14th May 2010

© aresjoberg, flickr.com Investigators are trying to track down who received calls before the crash Share:

Authorities investigating the Smolensk disaster have asked the Polish secret service to find out who received telephone calls from the doomed flight after it emerged that mobile phones may have interfered with the aircraft’s navigation systems.

Andrzej Seremet, the prosecutor general, said that he had ordered the ABW, Poland’s internal security agency, to track down all the people who received calls or text messages from the presidential flight on April 10.

His decision follows the revelation that the majority of mobile phones on board were still switched on when the plane crashed.

“At the crash site Polish prosecutors have already found that a significant proportion of the victims’ phones were active because their screens showed information about missed calls,” said Mr Seremet during a press conference.

The prosecutor also said that investigators will quiz Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin of the late president Lech Kaczynski, after it was revealed that he had spoken by phone with his brother during the flight.

Although Mr Seremet stressed that investigators were not assuming mobile phones may have interfered with equipment, they were not discounting the possibility.

Experts have said that cell phones could have affected the plane’s instrument landing systems - ILS for short - as it came into land at a fog-bound Smolensk airport in Russia. The ILS guide aircraft into land through the use of radio waves and high-intensity lighting when visibility is poor.

“The ILS systems use a similar wavelength [to mobile phones] and, unfortunately, phones interfere, and this may lead to may lead to disruptions,” said Jacek Balcer, a spokesman for LOT Polish Airlines.

“Taxiing and landing interference from mobile phones may also affect communication with the control tower,” he added.

Experts have said that it is possible that as the aircraft came within range of transmitter masts, people may have started to call and send text messages from their phones, and that this could have had catastrophic consequences.

Prosecutors will also investigate whether the aircraft’s three satellite phones had any untoward influence on the navigation systems. Two satellite phone calls were made from the aircraft on the fateful flight, including one by President Lech Kaczynski.