MOSCOW, March 7 (RIA Novosti) – A new forensic probe into the 2010 plane crash that killed then Polish President Lech Kaczynski has not revealed any traces of explosives at the scene of the accident or on the debris of the plane, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Thursday.
Russian and Polish investigators carried out a joint investigation in February-March in response to speculation that the late Polish president could have become a victim of a conspiracy to blow up his plane with a bomb.
“The investigators examined trees and aircraft fragments and took more than 300 samples for comparative tests carried out in Russia and Poland,” Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
“The experts concluded that the examined objects carried no traces of an explosion,” he said.
The Tu-154 plane, carrying a delegation of senior Polish officials, crashed in heavy fog as it attempted to land at an airfield near the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, 2010. There were no survivors in the crash that killed eight crew and 88 passengers.
The Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) put the blame on the Polish crew in its probe into the accident. Poland, which carried out a separate investigation, partially blamed Russian air controllers for the tragedy.