PO “Responsible for Smolensk”

17th July 2010

© Aargambit, wkikipedia.org Kaczynski hits out at PO for Smolensk crash Share:

Law and Justice (PiS) leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has hit out at the government, stating that he holds them accountable for the Smolensk air crash which killed his twin brother and the 95 others onboard.

In a recent interview with Gazeta Polska, Kaczynski claims that as organisers of the ceremonial event, the ruling party are “politically responsible for the catastrophe”.

Recounting his telephone conversation with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski immediately after the crash, he said; “I told him that ‘This is the result of your government’s ‘criminal’ policy because you failed to buy new planes’. Then I hung up.”

According to reports, Sikorski called back 15 minutes later, stating categorically that the catastrophe was the result of a pilot error. “I remember his exact words to me,” recalled Kaczynski. “He told me ‘This was a pilot error’. Thinking about it now, I believe that both Sikorski and Tusk feared that I would repeat my feelings, which I stated during the first call, to the general public.”

He also went on to criticise the post-crash travel arrangements, believing that the slow driving and large number of stops en route were all pre-planned in order to allow the Prime Minister and other government bigwigs to arrive at the scene first.

“At some point, Donald Tusk’s limousine rushed past us, and only then were we allowed to travel normally. It was like paranoia, the Prime Minister of Poland was racing with me. It was obvious he wanted to get to the site first.”

The outburst comes as various Polish media have published their interpretations of parts of the flight deck voice tapes which are recorded as ‘incomprehensible’ in the official transcripts. Gazeta.pl claim their source, someone involved in the work of the International Aviation Committee (MAK), told them that at 08:16 Captain Protasiuk said “If I don’t land I’ll be in deep trouble”..

TVN24 appeared to go further by reporting that they had an interpretation of the missing conversation from 08:39:54, 71 seconds before the plane went down. At this time TVN24 claim Captain Protasiuk said 'If I/we don't land, he/she/they will kill me.' TVN24 have not suggested who they think he/she/they is or are, and are making it clear that these are unofficial transcripts of the flight deck conversations.

It is being claimed that Kaczynski’s comments are part of PiS’s plans to deflect attention away from the fact that pressure was being put on the pilot to land

“The Law and Justice party is built on frustration and revenge. It would be very strange if it suddenly became the Law and Justice party with a different formula,” said Janusz Majcherek, a political scientist from the Pedagogical University in Krakow.