Recorder found in Kaczynski crash probe

MOSCOW, April 12 (UPI) -- Russian investigators examining the weekend crash of the Polish president's plane recovered the voice recorder, and were considering the pilot's state of mind.

Specifically, they were focusing on why the pilot disregarded air traffic controllers' instructions to give up trying to land in bad weather in western Russia, The New York Times reported. All 96 people on board, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, were killed.

A transcript of cockpit conversations hasn't been released, but attention has been drawn to the pilot's state of mind because of a previous disagreement involving Kaczynski about whether to land in dangerous conditions.

Russian and Polish investigators said evidence initially indicated the plane didn't have any technical malfunctions, the Times reported.

On Monday, Russian specialists began building a road to help remove the plane wreckage, Russian news agency RIA Novosti said.

"Today work has begun to build a road on the territory of the military aerodrome. Otherwise, the fragments of the plane wreckage cannot be removed from boggy terrain," a spokesman for the Smolensk regional administration said.

The road-building operation was expected to take several days, the spokesman said.