'No explosion, no technical error at Polish president's aircraft'

Russian investigators today ruled out sabotage or technical error on the ill-fated aircraft that crashed carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski, even as they said the analysis of the black boxes would be completed by the weekend.

"There was no explosion or fire onboard the Polish president's aircraft, its engines were normally functioning till the end," a senior member of prime minister Vladimir Putin-led probe commission said today, indicating that human error was being considered the main cause of the crash.

Vice premier Sergei Ivanov said at the probe commission's meeting chaired by Putin that the deciphering of the back boxes of the Soveit era Tu-154 aircraft will be completed by the end of the week.

"Currently data of voice and flight recorders is being synchronised and sounds and noises in the cabin are being identified," he said.

"This work requires some time and would continue approximately till the end of this week," he added.

Meawnhile, a third additional data recorder has been found at the crash site, which was installed by the Polish experts.

"It has been agreed that this Polish-made data recorder will be deciphered in Poland with the participation of Russian experts," Chairperson of the CIS Aviation Committee Tatiana Anodina briefed Putin.

She said no technical failure onboard has been registered.

President Kaczynski's Soviet built crashed on Saturday in Russia's Smolensk region while attempting to land in dense fog at a military airfield, killing all of 96 people onboard, including First Lady Maria Kaczynski and the cream of political and military elite of the country.

Preliminary probe blamed the human error for the crash as the pilot had refused to heed the advice to go to another airport due low visibility and it was his fourth attempt to land.