By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Experts are studying records of talks between the pilots of the crashed plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski and ground air controllers, an official said Sunday.
The Soviet-made TU-154 carrying Polish President Kaczynski hit a few trees as it attempted to land at Smolensk airport in Russia Saturday, killing all the 97 people on board.
Investigators and aviation specialists were deciphering the flight recorders found at the site of the crash and were also inspecting fragments of the plane wreck, Vladimir Markin, investigative committee spokesperson said.
The plane was taking Kaczynski and a delegation of top Polish officials to a ceremony to pay tribute to some 20,000 Polish officers executed in Katyn and other places by Soviet secret police in 1940.
The bodies and body fragments of the crash victims had been sent to Moscow for identification, he said.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of the late Polish president, Sunday identified the bodies of Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed shock over Kaczynski’s death.
“The Secretary-General was shocked to hear the news of the plane crash in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and many other people, including senior officials, were killed in Smolensk, Russia,” Ban’s spokesman said.
“President Kaczynski had served his country and people with distinction and conviction, and was deservedly respected internationally. That he died en route to an event marking a new level of reconciliation between Poland and Russia is particularly poignant,” he said.
Earlier Sunday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk laid flowers at the site of the plane crash.