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Russian transport minister calls Smolensk crash transcript release ’unprecedented’

18 January 2011 23:27 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The public release of recorded conversations between the Russian air traffic controllers and the crew of the crashed Polish presidential plane is unprecedented, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

"I know that the CIS International Aviation Committee (MAK) is ready to publish the conversations of the crew [of the Polish plane]. This is an unprecedented decision. These are materials of the Russian investigation bodies," Levitin told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

The conversations of the air traffic controllers will also be published, he added.

Last week, Moscow handed over to Warsaw all case materials into the investigation of the Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s plane crash.

A Polish commission investigating the Smolensk air crash said on Tuesday Russian air traffic controllers were under pressure, made a number of errors and failed to warn the Polish pilots that they were off course.

Commenting on the statement, Levitin said: "Investigation should make conclusions on whether there was pressure or not. I want the investigation held in parallel by the Russian and Polish sides to be objective."

"The air traffic controller confirmed to the crew that there were no hazards on the runway. Further it is up to the pilot to make the decision to land because this is a military, not an international airport. The controller cannot stop him from doing this," Levitin said.

The head of the MAK technical commission, Alexei Morozov, said it decided to publish the recordings of all the conversations between the air traffic controllers prior to the crash for the purpose of "providing objective information to the world society."

The Tu-154 that crashed near Smolensk was carrying Kaczynski and other senior Polish officials to a ceremony to honor Polish officers killed by Soviet secret police in 1940.