Polish President's Plane Had Non-Crew in Cockpit; Conspiracy Theories Emerge

According to the BBC News Service analysis of recordings from the flight have identified voices of more than one non-crew member in the cabin of the plane, which crashed as it tried to land in Western Russia on the 10th April 2010.

The plane was carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski and dozens more senior Polish officials to a commemoration of the Katyn massacre of more than 20,000 Poles by Soviet forces in 1940, when it crashed in poor weather, killing all on board.

Apparently one of the non-crew members has been identified, although they have not so far been named by officials.

Air traffic control reports show that the plane had been warned twice about low visibility and that conditions were too poor to land, according to the head of the technical commission that is examining the crash.

The plane, a Tupolev-154 had shown no signs of faults when it crashed, and all systems at the airport in Smolensk were also operating normally at the time.

Although the cause of the crash is not yet known, explosions, fire or terrorist attacks have been ruled out by the inter-state air committee for the former Soviet Union.

However there has been speculation since the crash took place as to whether the Russian secret service were involved in a plot to assassinate the Polish President and the other officials. There has been no evidence to date to corroborate this, however the news today points towards unusual events taking place on board the plane.

Not only should the cockpit door have remained closed during the flight, evidence now showing that it was open prior to the crash, but also the presence of at least two non crew members in the cockpit raises questions as to what was taking place immediately prior to the crash.

The fact that weather in the Smolensk area had been bad at the time of the crash does not help in determining the actual cause. Had the weather been fine, then in light of today's announcements, the crash would not be seen to be merely the result of an accident. It will definitely be interesting to see what further information is released in the coming days and weeks.

What does make today's announcements even more interesting, is that other reports have been surfacing in recent days of a grainy amateur video taken at the crash site, which supposedly show Russian troops shooting survivors from the plane, although at this point there is no proof of this and the report can't be taken seriously. The Daily Mail in the UK comments that Russian aviation experts have called the video a "malicious hoax" and that it is just an attempt by extremists to discredit Moscow.

The First Post in the UK also comments on the video, which looks to be genuine and clearly shows the upturned undercarriage of a plane with the surrounding woods on fire. However there is a controversy as to the interpretation of the audio, which is subtitled on the video as "Give me a gun" and "Don't kill us", but has also been transcribed as "Get Away From Here".

It is odd however that a plane carrying so many Polish officials should crash in Russia, these being two countries where there are still political frictions, and investigations are indicating unusual activity on board the plane.

Sources:

BBC News Service

Daily Mail

The First Post