The pilots of the plane that crashed in west Russia on April 10, killing Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, were under pressure to land in thick fog, a Polish TV station claims, citing new information.
The TVN24 news station said it has unofficial information about new fragments of conversation from the black boxes retrieved from the plane.
The previously unpublicized recordings apparently contain a section in which the captain of the doomed plane says "If we [or I] don't land, they'll [or he'll] kill me."
Bad sound quality makes the exact words unclear, the TV channel said.
In 2008, Kaczynski pressured a pilot to land in Georgia under gunfire. He called the pilot a “coward” after his refusal.
There has been no official comment so far on the claims.
A plane carrying Kaczynski, his wife, 88 officials and eight crew members, crashed en route to Smolensk after hitting trees as it attempted to land. The high-ranking delegation was due to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre in which Soviet secret police killed thousands of Polish military officers.
Russian and Polish investigators and experts are jointly investigating causes of the crash. Polish military prosecutors are conducting their own separate investigation.
MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti)
