STATEMENT OF CRO COMMISSION FOR INVESTIGATION OF PLANE CRASH NEAR DUBROVNIK

DUBROVNIK ZAGREB, June 10 (Hina) - A commission of the Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications for the investigation of the plane crash near Dubrovnik on 3 April 1996, on Monday issued a public statement in which it regrets that the United States Defense Department had published its discoveries referring to the causes of the crash without consulting the Croatian Commission and in opposition to international conventions and the agreement between the Croatian and U.S. side. The statement says that the quotation from a U.S. report claiming that one of the causes of the crash was an irregularly set procedure of instrumental approach, was a "crude lie." A statement of the U.S. Defense Department issued on 7 June 1996 states three main causes of the crash which killed 36 persons, including U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. These causes are: an error by the crew, poor commandeering and an irregularly set procedure of instrumental approach. The statement of the Croatian Commission for Investigating the Causes of the Crash says: "(...) 1. According to Croatian and international regulations, the president of the Croatian Commission for the Investigation of the Crash, exclusively responsible for the implementation of investigative proceedings, and U.S. representatives, who may participate in the investigation only in agreement with the Croatian side, agreed that the two sides would meet after receiving the results of samples' examination, to be performed in the U.S. According to the agreement, after the gathered data had been examined, the two sides were to meet in order to analyze and agree on the results. According to regulations, the U.S. side has the right to disagree, but is not allowed to publish a report. 2. We have urged the U.S. side to deliver the results on a number of occasions. On 6 June the U.S. side announced its arrival and the delivery of the whole investigative documentation... However, contrary to our expectations, we have been unpleasantly surprised by the fact that the U.S. Defense Department had already published the results of its investigation as a final report, to which, as already said, it had no right according to either Croatian or international regulations. 3. From the unauthorized report of the U.S. Defense Department... it is visible that part of the guilt for the crash is ascribed to an irregularly set procedure of instrumental approach to the Dubrovnik airport, which blames the Croatian side. Such a claim represents a crude lie, since the U.S. side is acquainted with the following: (...) - that the Air Navigation Bureau ICAO in Montreal, Canada, in the presence of representatives of the Croatian investigative commission, reached a written conclusion stating that the criteria undertaken by the Croatian side while setting the procedure of instrumental approach for landing on track 12 of the Dubrovnik airport were in accordance with ICAO Document 8186, PANS-OPS, Volume II, paragraph 7.2.1. and Part III, Chapter 6, paragraph 6.3.6. b), of which the U.S. side had been informed in time." At the end of the statement, the Commission regretted that "the report of the U.S. side was published in such an unfair and improper way", and announced that "in the shortest time possible a final report on the crash of the U.S. plane near the Dubrovnik airport would be set and published according to the law." (hina) ha jn 101825 MET jun 96