Black Box of Crashed Poland Presidential Plane Located

Two investigators study a fragment of the wreck of the Polish government aeroplane TU 154-M on the airport in Smolensk, Russia. Photo by BGNES

The black box of the TU-154 Poland government airplane, which crashed near Smolensk Saturday, killing President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, prominent politicians and top military, has been found by investigators.

The news was announced Saturday by the Russian information agency Interfax.

Kaczynski, who was due to visit Smolensk to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which Soviet troops killed thousands of Poles, died Saturday when the government TU-154 plane crashed near the airport of the Russian city.

According to latest information, the black box is undamaged. The Russian Television showed footage of the box seemingly intact.

The equipment was found near the tail stabilizer of the plane, meaning the black box was the one in the tail, which is not accessible to the crew. The TU-154 black boxes can sustain strong shocks and temperatures up to 1 000 degrees Celsius up to 50 minutes after the crash. They keep recordings from the last 20 hours.

Upon attempting to land, the plane was just 2.5 meters above ground and could not take up speed to go up again, Polish TV reports while aviation experts say it is very unusual for experienced pilots to attempt landing 4 times.

The experts further stated the crew included high caliber professionals. The 4th and fatal attempt to land would mean the aircraft was in sound technical condition.

The presidential TU-154 had 5 004 flight hours, and 1 823 landings. Since its thorough renovation and repairs in Russia in May 2009, the plane had just 50 landings and 124 flight hours.

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