Kaczynski’s Plane Tried to Land Only Once: Official

The pilots of Tu-154, the plane of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski, which crashed on April 10 near Smolensk, Russia, performed only one attempt to land, the head of the International Aviation Committee, Tatiana Anodina, told Itar-Tass.

“The previous information about three or four attempts is not true to fact. I can say that there was only one attempt made to land the aircraft,” the official said.

A source close to the investigation committee said that that there was no reason to believe that the high-ranking passengers had made the pilots land the aircraft. The analysis of the flight recorders showed that there had been no pressure put on the pilots during the landing.

News agencies reported earlier that the pilots could have found themselves in a difficult situation, because the Polish delegation was not supposed to be late for the official ceremony in Katyn. It was particularly said that the VIP passengers wanted the pilots to land the plane at all costs.

Tatiana Adonina urged the media Thursday not to trust all messages about the investigation of the crash.

We continue the work meticulously in close cooperation with the Polish side. After all the works are over, the committee will expose the results,” Tatiana Anodina said.

“The Russian and Polish experts do not have any professional or language misunderstanding in the course of the investigation,” the official said.

The site, where the Tu-154 touched the trees for the first time, is 1,050 meters far from the landing strip. In 200 meters, the left wing of the plane hit a tree, and the aircraft gave a lurch to the left.

Most of the fragments of the plane were found 350-500 meters far from the edge of the landing strip.