2013 Smolensk Crash Conference

To the members of the academic and scientific community

2013 Smolensk Crash Conference, Warsaw

Dear Senators,

The 2nd Smolensk Conference (Warsaw, October 21-22, 2013), had as a goal "to create a forum for presentation of interdisciplinary research on the technical, medical, sociological and legal aspects of the Smolensk catastrophe". This objective appears to be fully achieved and the Conference revealed the current state of the scientific examination on the tragic event of April 10, 2010, in which the President of the Republic of Poland died along with 95 accompanying persons.

The conference was also successful in several other aspects. It proved the capability of the scientific community to integrate around a particular scientific goal, and achieved this result without any organizational or financial help from official institutions. It turned out that over a hundred professors from five countries were able to combine their research efforts. They proved that even in the absence of access to such essential evidence as . the air plane wreck it is still possible to make a substantial progress in the scientific investigation.

The basic principle of the Conference was its openness and transparency.  Various departments of academic institutions as well as science institutes and other research units, both public and private, have been invited to participate by written invitations, whenever their research area was within the scope of the Conference. In addition, open invitation was placed on the website. As a result nearly 50 submissions have been received, 38 of these were admitted for presentation at the Conference by the Scientific Committee. They represented a wide spectrum of scientific domains - from technical sciences (23 papers), through medical (3 papers), sociological (6 papers) and legal (6 papers) disciplines. To ensure transparency and to prevent any potential media manipulation, the whole debate was broadcasted live via the Web. In this way the Conference has been watched not only by its 220 participants, but by a large number of the web surfers. The Conference was retransmitted by several TV stations, the estimated number of viewers amounted to about 200 thousand, a remarkable number in science (on a global scale).

The 2nd Smolensk Conference examined the technical, medical, sociological and legal aspects of the Smolensk catastrophe. The papers presented showed the current state of our knowledge and reveal areas of further studies necessary for understanding the subject. The picture that emerges from the presented work clearly demonstrates that the hypothesis that the Tu -154 aircraft in Smolensk lost a piece of its wing due to a birch tree and then crashed and disintegrated completely as a result of hitting the ground (catastrophe type 1A) - this hypothesis is false. There is a clear evidence that the plane broke up in the air and fell to the ground, its parts being already separated (catastrophe type 2B). The ground represents a kind of a book in which the sequence of events is reflected. The same is true about the appearance and distribution of the wreckage on the ground and on the landmarks, all of this evidence documented in thousands of photos and videos taken by numerous independent operators. This huge documentation both in whole and in detail shows that the laws of physics rule out the possibility of the course of events presented in the reports of the MAK (Russian) Commission and Miller (Polish) Commission. It is clear, even for those with a basic knowledge of mechanics, that the fuselage was torn not compressed.

Dear Senators,

In the situation when the false version of destruction mechanics is being diffused and promoted, we ask you to undertake scientific efforts, so important for keeping scientific honesty and responsibility with respect to our students. We ask you to take appropriate actions to facilitate scientific research on the Smolensk catastrophe with all the rules of the scientific inquiry. We believe it is necessary e to find appropriate resources for independent research within the university as well as encourage scientists to participate in it. The 1st Smolensk Conference Proceedings are already in your university’s library. They are also available at http://konferencjasmolenska.pl, http://smolenskcrash.com, and http://smolenskcrashnews.com There you will find the full account of the 2nd Smolensk Conference for your critical analysis. 

We would like to stress that even without any financial resources it is still possible to organize scientific seminars in order to break with indifference with respect to the most important post-war tragedy in our country. We are convinced that in a situation of keen interest to the Polish society such as the Smolensk catastrophe, the ostentatious indifference of the official academic institutions towards this subject does not bring them glory, but rather leaves many honest scientists with a feeling of shame.

Warsaw, October 22, 2013

The Organizing Committee and the Scientific Committee of the 2nd Smolensk Conference