Poland's defence ministry on Saturday demanded that Russia immediately hand over recordings from the cockpit of the presidential plane that crashed in 2010 in Smolensk.

The site of the Polish presidential plane crash in 2010. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

"As shown by Russian President Vladimir Putin's [Friday] statement, Russian authorities have the [transcript] of talks between the pilot and passengers, which was never made available to Poland,” defence ministry spokesman Bartłomiej Misiewicz said.said.

"It shows a completely false picture of the course of events that led to the Smolensk tragedy,” he added.

The demand for the recordings follows a Friday conference in which Putin summed up the year.

During the conference, Putin said that handing over the plane wreck to Poland is not possible as investigators still need it.

But Poland's Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz responded that the Russian investigation was "no reason” to keep the wreck.

Macierewicz added that the Russian probe is being carried out in accordance with the Chicago convention on international civil aviation, under which Moscow must return Poland its property.

In April 2010, a Polish presidential plane crashed while trying to land in fog in Smolensk, western Russia, killing then-President Lech Kaczyński and the 95 others on board. (vb)

Source: IAR