(12 Jan 2011)
1. Wide of Tatyana Anodina, Head of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), and Alexei Morozov, Head of the IAC Technical Commission, entering news conference
2. Mid of Interstate Aviation Committee representative putting folders with documents on investigation on table
3. Close of maps
4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tatyana Anodina, Head of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee: (clients note: non-verbatim translation)
“The main reasons for the catastrophe were the following: the crew’s failure to undertake a timely decision to go to an alternative airfield, taking into account the repeated and timely information they received about actual weather conditions at the Smolensk Severny Airfield, which were much worse than established minimums for this airfield. Without the visibility of ground reference points, the descent was also made from an altitude which was actually much lower than the 100 metres established by the flight leader, and the crew didn’t make a second attempt (at landing) to transfer to a visual flight (where they could see ground reference points). There was also an absence of a proper reaction to the multiple alarms from an early warning notice system. These reasons led to the aeroplane crashing into the barriers and the ground.”
5. Wide of news conference
6. Close of Anodina on video camera screen
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tatyana Anodina, Head of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee: (clients note: non-verbatim translation)
“According to the conclusion made by flight experts and aviation psychologists, including Polish ones, the presence of Poland’s air force commander in the pilot’s cabin, up until the collision of the plane with the ground, had a psychological influence on the commander’s decision to take an unjustified risk by continuing the descent with the overwhelming goal of landing by all means necessary.”
8. Cutaway of journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Tatyana Anodina, Head of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee: (clients note: non-verbatim translation)
“According to the results of the forensic medical examination, the blood of the Polish air force commander contained an alcohol reading of 0.06 percent.”
10. Wide of news conference, with television screen showing simulation of airplane’s flight
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexei Morozov, Head of technical commission, Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee: (clients note: non-verbatim translation)
“Analysis of actual weather conditions showed that the establishment of visual contact with the lights of the signalling system or ground reference points was not possible. There were no reports from crew members. The permission to land was not given by the air traffic controller. The crew should have started a second attempt, but instead continued their unauthorised descent with the automatic pilot system turned on and an auto-throttle system. The navigator continued to report an altitude at every ten metres until an altitude of 20 metres. On the multiple responses by the early warning notice system to the plane going close to the ground, which sounds like ‘pull up’, as you will see in the video later, crew members didn’t react.”
12. Close of video screen shot showing simulation of crash
STORYLINE:
Russian officials investigating the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski placed the blame squarely on the Poles on Wednesday, saying the crew was pressured to land in bad weather by an air force commander who had been drinking.
Kaczynski and 95 others, including his wife, died in April 2010 when their Tu-154 plane crashed while trying to land in Smolensk, Russia.
There were no survivors.
They said he had a blood-alcohol level of about 0.06 percent, enough to impair reasoning.
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Post time: Jun-16-2017