A commission investigating the fatal crash of the Polish president’s plane in 2010 said on Wednesday that the jet’s left wing was destroyed as a result of an explosion on board.

The commission said that the explosion had “several sources” on the plane, which crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, 2010, killing Polish President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others.

"These conclusions were adopted by the members [of the commission] and constitute one of the key conclusions of [its] technical report," the commission said in a statement.

In April, the commission said that the presidential plane was probably destroyed by a mid-air explosion and that Russian air traffic controllers deliberately misled Polish pilots about their location as they neared the runway.

The commission was set up by Poland’s conservative governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in 2015.

The party is headed by Jarosław Kaczyński, whose twin brother, President Lech Kaczyński, died in the crash.

PiS has long challenged an official report into the disaster issued by the previous Polish government which cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport.

A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.

In mid-December last year, Poland's then-defence minister, Antoni Macierewicz, said that Russia was responsible for the plane crash. He also said that the Polish presidential plane was destroyed by "two explosions."

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP