International experts conclude Smolensk crash was accident, not explosion

An international team of experts appointed in 2019 by the Polish prosecutor’s office, at the initiative of former defence minister Antoni Macierewicz, completed its investigation of the 10 April 2010 Smolensk plane crash in August 2024. The panel, which included specialists from Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, France and three Polish medical universities, delivered an English‑language report to prosecutors in September 2024. The report found no evidence of any explosive device and stated that the injuries of the victims are consistent with a high‑impact aircraft accident, confirming earlier findings of the 2011 Miller commission that the Tupolev‑154 crashed while attempting a difficult landing in poor weather.

The experts explicitly ruled out the sabotage hypothesis that had been promoted by the Smolensk sub‑committee under Macierewicz’s leadership. They noted that forensic analysis showed no remnants of explosive material on any examined objects. The prosecutor’s office announced that the families of the victims can now review the translated findings, urging that the matter be considered closed.

The investigation, which cost over 30 million zł, had been a source of intense political controversy since the PiS government took power in 2015, but the final expert opinion aligns the official cause of the disaster with an accident rather than a deliberate act.