Minister quits after pilot training is blamed for president's aircrash

Bogdan Klich handed in his resignation to Donald Tusk, the current prime minister, yesterday as Poland digested the report into the air disaster at Smolensk in western Russia.

On 10 April last year the Polish air force plane carrying president Lech Kaczynski, his wife and dozens of the Polish political, military and civil elite smashed into the ground after clipping a tree as it attempted to land at Smolensk, killing all on board.

Mr Klich said his continued presence at the defence ministry would impede the implementation of the report's recommendations.

The 328-page investigation concluded serious failings in pilot training and the organisation of the squadron responsible for flying the president and his ministers had had an unfortunate and significant bearing on the causes of the crash.

Maciej Lasek, a member of the investigative commission, said: "There were serious shortcomings in the organisation of the unit (of the air force responsible for handling VIP flights].

"Deliberate decisions were made to disregard or break procedures, to conduct training not in line with training regulations. Pilots straight out of flying schools were accepted and no training flights were carried out."

The shortcomings contributed to the aircraft approaching Smolensk too fast in thick fog, and led to the crew believing they were 200ft off the ground when they were little more than 30ft. Poor training also had an influence on the pilots ignoring the audio "pull-up" warnings issued by the aircraft's terrain proximity alert system until it was too late.

But while laying most of the blame at the door of the Polish armed forces, the report also took a swipe at the Russians.

Polish investigators concluded that poor and misleading instructions from air-traffic control at Smolensk were another factor that had led to disaster.

Jerzy Miller, Poland's interior minister and chairman of the investigating committee, said: "One can even say that the calming directions from the control tower - 'You're on course', 'you're on the right path' - were misleading.

"The crew thought it had not committed any errors and that it was on the right approach path."

The report also found Smolensk airport to be poorly equipped and lacking the lighting needed to cope with the foggy conditions. The attribution of some of the blame for the crash to Russian failings contrasted with Moscow's official report that placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the pilots.Despite the differences Russian crash investigators said the Polish report corresponded broadly with their own findings.

But the Polish report failed to heal raw political differences in Poland over the crash. Opposition politicians from the Law and Justice party, which Lech Kaczynski helped found, have long accused the government of trying to cover up its alleged responsibility for the crash.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Law and Justice leader and twin brother of the late president, accused Mr Tusk of "failing to defend the honour" of those who died, and "lacking the courage to assume responsibility for the crash".