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Kaczynski air crash: Russia blames Polish pilot error

Russia has blamed the Smolensk air crash which killed the Polish president and nearly 100 other people in April on Polish pilot error.

The Polish crew failed to heed bad weather warnings because they were afraid of displeasing President Lech Kaczynski, Russian investigators said.

The presence of Poland's air force commander in the cockpit drove them to take "unjustified risk", they found.

Poland's prime minister has cut short a holiday in response to the report.

A government spokesman said Donald Tusk, who sharply criticised a draft version of the Russian report last month, was returning to Poland for talks with its lead crash investigator, Jerzy Miller.

In other reaction, Lech Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw condemned the Russian report as a "joke against Poland", saying the Russian investigators had failed to produce evidence.

Russia's handling of the disaster had previously been widely commended....
Read entire article at BBC News