Bogdan Klich became defense minister in November 2007 Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

 After Friday's release of the government's report into the causes of last year's Smolensk catastrophe, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he has accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Bogdan Klich.

The government's report was highly critical of the 36th Regiment, the military squadron responsible for the technical preparations for the flight and for the training of the pilots. The report said “improper” training of the pilots had a significant influence on the events of that day.

According to the report, none of the pilots had the necessary qualifications to fly a TU-154 plane, while the navigator also lacked the proper qualifications. Only the flight engineer was properly qualified, the report said. The report also stated that official procedures were circumvented and that there was a lack of proper supervision.

Prime Minister Tusk said the Polish report had the elements which were “missing” from this January's Russian MAK report into the Smolensk catastrophe.

“Here we have what is missing in the Russian report, namely mistakes and faults on the Russian side in preparing the airport and in the information that was given the Polish pilots during the flight,” he said.

Mr Tusk thanked the 34-member commission for its work in preparing its report and said it was now clear there was no foul play involved in the catastrophe, no assassination plot and no external attack on the TU-154 plane.

Tomasz Siemoniak, currently undersecretary of state in the interior ministry, is Mr Tusk's candidate to become Poland's next defense minister.