Polish Pilot Pressured to Land Before Kaczynski Crash
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The pilots of a Polish airliner that crashed last year in Russia killing President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others were under “psychological pressure” to land in heavy fog, Russian investigators said today.
The commander of Poland’s air force, General Andrzej Blasik, was in the cockpit at the time of the crash and had alcohol in his blood, Tatyana Anodina, chairman of the Interstate Aviation Committee, or MAK, told reporters in Moscow. The April 10 disaster in Smolensk, Russia, wasn’t caused by mechanical failure, and the pilots bear sole responsibility for the decision to land, she said.