The crew of the Polish president"s plane...

A Soviet-made Tu-154 plane was carrying a delegation of Poland"s top public figures to pay tribute to some 20,000 Polish officers executed by Soviet secret police in 1940. It hit the top of trees while attempting to land at the Severny military airport near the western Russian city of Smolensk in thick fog. All 96 people on board were killed in the crash.

Col. (Ret.) Anatoly Muravyov, the air traffic controller who was guiding the plane during the landing, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda Russian daily that the crew "did not listen" to recommendations to divert to another airport.

"The head of the traffic control group warned of poor weather conditions, but the crew went ahead with the landing without permission. And [they] also made their landing approach without permission," Muravyov said.

"The [control tower] head said three times to execute a flyby procedure. When the crew did not listen, the control tower could only continue to guide the plane and watch it.

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