WARSAW (Sputnik) — The statements by Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz on the crash of a plane carrying former Polish President Lech Kaczynski discredit the country's army, the prime minister and the current president, leader of the main opposition party Civic Platform Grzegorz Schetyna said Tuesday.
"No one takes Minister Macierewicz seriously either in Brussels, or in Poland – and it's a shame, we say this very clearly. By his statements, Macierewicz once again discredits the Polish army, the government, not only himself, but also Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and President Andrzej Duda, who is head of the [Polish] armed forces," Schetyna said during a press conference in Sejm, commenting on the latest statements of Macierewicz on the Smolensk tragedy.
In 2010, the Polish Air Force Tu-154 jet airliner carrying Kaczynski, his wife and 88 military, parliament, banking and religious officials crashed amid heavy fog as it attempted to land at an airfield near the Russian city of Smolensk. All 96 people on board died in the crash.
In 2011, the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee published a final report on the results of the technical investigation into the catastrophe. The report gave the crew’s decision not to route the plane to an alternative aerodrome as the direct cause of the crash. The report also outlined serious deficiencies in the way the aircraft’s crew was trained and how readiness for the flight was assessed.
