Expert: multiple causes for Polish plane crash

A Polish investigator is quoted as saying that a combination of more than a dozen factors led to the April plane crash in Russia that killed Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

Edmund Klich said in an interview with the daily Gazeta Wyborcza today that most of the issues were on the Polish side and included the way the crews were trained,the preparations for the ill-fated flight and a willingness to violate rules.

Klich is an aviation expert sent by Poland to follow the investigation by Russia’s aviation experts into the crash. Their findings are to be published within weeks.

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He said the Polish crew’s decision to try to land in dense fog at the airport in Smolensk,Russia,was “totally irrational.”

Poland’s own investigation of the crash is under way.