Transcripts from the black box recorders on the doomed TU 154 show that President Kaczynski was informed that the plane would possibly not be able to land at Smolensk airport.
In the cabin during the final minutes of the flight on April 10 was Mariusz Kazana, head of Poland’s foreign ministry’s diplomatic protocol. Fifteen minutes before the crash, Kazana asks about possibilities to land. The pilot answers that "at this moment, in such conditions, we won’t be ready to land.”
Four minutes elapse and then Kazana is recorded as saying: “The president hasn’t decided what to do…”.
It was reported immediately after the crash that alternative airports had been suggested to land at, in Vitebsk or Minsk, but that would delayed the arrival of the 96 person presidential delegation at a Katyn anniversary ceremony. The inference from the transcripts is that president Kaczynski was consulted as to what to do in the event of weather conditions prohibiting a landing.
It has been suggested that landing at another airport would be difficult as their would be no Polish security (BOR) officers to escort the party to Smolensk by road.
Also in the cockpit were head hostess Barbara Maciejczyk and General Andrzej Błasik, chief of Poland’s military air force. (pg)
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