Reuters say the crew were frightened of the consequences of what would happen if they didn't land.
"He'll (the Polish President) will get mad," one crew memebr said.
Sadly, the consequences of attempting to land were worse than that of a mad Polish President.
Edited to add an update hot off the trading screen.
MOSCOW, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Psychological pressure on the
crew of a plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski to a
ceremony in Russia may have led to the April crash that killed
him and 95 others, Russian aviation officials said on Wednesday.
"He'll get mad," one of the plane's crew members said,
according to a flight recording excerpt aired during a press
conference by Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) on
the probe into the crash that killed Kaczynski and 95 others.
The comment was in Polish and a Russian language translation
was provided by the IAC.
IAC head Tatiana Anodina said the decision to push ahead
with a landing in adverse weather conditions was the direct
cause of the crash that killed many of Poland's leading
political and military officials.
"On the one hand he (the pilot) knew the plane shouldn't be
landing in these conditions, on the other hand there was a
strong pressure on board to bring the plane to a landing," she
told a news briefing presenting the final report on the crash.
She said the presence of Kaczynski and other high-level
officials, including the Polish air force chief, inside the
cockpit influenced the pilot's decision not to abort the landing
and instead try to fly to an another airstrip.
"The expected negative reaction of the main passenger" to a
recommendation not to land "placed psychological pressure on
crew members and influenced the decision to continue the
landing," Anodina said, clearly referring to Kaczynski.
The crash, which took place in thick fog near Russia's
Smolensk airport on April 10, killed Kaczynski, his wife and
many other senior Polish government officials and lawmakers.
Poland, which received the IAC's report in December, said at
the time that it was dissatisfied with its findings, sparking
new tensions between Warsaw and Moscow.