Smolensk plane crash. The new Minister of Defense of Poland liquidates the sub-commission that investigated the tragedy

The new Minister of Defense of Poland Władysław Kosyniak-Kamysh liquidates the subcommittee on the re-investigation of the Smolensk plane crash, which was created in 2016 by the ex-head of the Polish Ministry of Defense Antoni Macierewicz. By December 18, members of the subcommittee were obliged to hand over all documentation, property and equipment.

The Polish publications Wrpost and RAR write about it.

Today, December 15, all permits and powers of attorney related to the work of the subcommittee were revoked from the members of the subcommittee. In the near future, a special group will be created to analyze the activities of all its members.

Antoni Macierewiczʼs subcommission investigated the Smolensk plane crash in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski died in April 2010, since 2016. The subcommission presented its final report on the tragedy in 2022 — that is, six years after its creation. There it was said that the explosion occurred in the left wing of the plane at a distance of one hundred meters from the birch, with which the first collision of the plane took place. There were no tall trees or other obstacles in that area that could threaten the plane. The investigation also found traces of explosives on 190 elements of the plane — as well as in places that are inaccessible to passengers, crew and technicians.

Then Macierewicz complained that the Russians were obstructing the investigation.

"The Polish representatives never heard or saw the original flight logs, they did not investigate the explosive damage in the center plane, they did not conduct a laboratory analysis of the engines. They also did not receive most of the documents at the Smolensk airport," Macierewicz noted in the report.

The preliminary transfer of the aircraft to the Russian Samara for overhaul at the Aviakor plant was of key importance. Control over the overhaul process made it possible to install explosives inside the left wing. At the planned time and place, the left wing of the "Tupolev" could be blown up with the help of a coded radio transmission. The plane, having lost lift on the left side, began to rotate around its axis, which at the right moment led to the explosion of a device placed in the ballast box, which caused significant damage to the plane.

Despite the publication of the work report in 2022, the Macierewicz subcommittee was not dissolved. 31 million zlotys could be spent on its operation, which is more than 290 million hryvnias. Now the Polish authorities want to establish all the details of the commissionʼs work and make the tragedy "transparent".

Deputy Minister of Defense Cezary Tomczyk informed that the investigation of the Macierewicz subcommittee "has nothing to do with explaining the causes of the Smolensk tragedy, but has a lot to do with politics." Tomczyk himself considers Jerzy Millerʼs report, which was annulled in 2011 due to the "falsified data" published in it, as revealing the causes of the plane crash near Smolensk.

• On April 10, 2010, a Tu-154M plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczyński crashed near Smolensk (Russia). The plane crash killed 7 crew members and 89 passengers — the president, his wife, representatives of the political, military, and cultural elite. The Polish side blamed Russia for the tragedy. The Russian Federation denied everything and cited the pilotʼs error as the reason, who decided to land the plane in bad weather conditions. The Investigative Committee of Russia allowed to inspect the wreckage of the plane only after 8 years.
• In the report of the previous Polish government commission investigating the Smolensk disaster published in 2011, the main cause of the tragedy was called the errors of the pilots of the presidential Tu-154M, however, the fault of the Russian side was not excluded.