An airliner carrying the President of Poland crashes on Russian soil near Smolensk and conspiracy theories spring up -- as conspiracy theories always seem to do when politics are involved. Smolensk is the nearest airport to the destination but it's a small military field with obsolete equipment. The flight rules are military. The Polish jet is flying by civilian rules.
The ninety or so passengers aboard the Russian-built Tupelov passenger liner are a cross-section of the Polish elite and their diplomatic mission is delicate, to commemorate the 2,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in the Katyn Forest in World War II. These were not chelloveks but rather 100 of the most important 400 people in Poland.
The airplane crashes a few miles short of the field. The only thing to survive in one piece is the floral wreath the Poles were bringing to the ceremony. Russian authorities investigate -- and blame the Polish pilots. The Polish authorities are dubious. Finally the investigative group becomes international, bipartisan, so to speak.
Somewhere in the rubble are three valuable data recorders, two Russian and one Polish. There should be no hint of ethnocentrism here. We should remember who put the first satellite into space. We should also recall that it was two Polish mathematicians who broke the Nazi Enigma code in World War II and brought it to Alan Turing at Bletchly Park in England.
It's pointless to place all the blame on one or another small group -- the pilots or the air traffic controllers at Smolensk -- but without going into details, the international board concluded that the chief errors lay with the pilots, who had reasons for making the mistakes. The ATCs at Smolensk issued a warning but should have canceled the landing because of fog. At Smolensk, the attitude was, "It's his call." The belief in an assassination involving Russians and the president's domestic enemies persists despite the evidence.
As usual, a splendidly done episode in a series that resembles Grenada TV's Sherlock Holmes, only of course on a much smaller budget and accurately based on an historical event.