Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Distinguished colleagues. This is a terrible tragedy. Many people, the top leadership, the head of state and his entire entourage have perished. Therefore, let's begin our meeting by honouring their memory.

The government commission established by executive order must do everything it can to determine the causes of the accident in the shortest possible time. That's the first thing.

And second, we need to do everything we can to help the victims' families and those travelling to Moscow to identify the bodies. We need to do everything we can to help them during this difficult time. We need to help them with travel and accommodations in Moscow, and we need to have psychologists on hand to offer them support in this difficult hour.

The Moscow authorities will bear all of the expenses associated with this work, with the exception of providing accommodations to relatives. The Russian Health Ministry and the Transport Ministry, the aviation service and our Commission's investigative committee must work together as one.

We need to get in touch with our Polish friends and work closely with them. We need to do everything to minimise the emotional anguish caused by this terrible tragedy.

Let's get to work. Mr Shoigu (addressing Sergei Shoigu).

Sergei Shoigu: Mr Putin, at 10:50am, the TU-154 M airplane flying from Warsaw to Smolensk disappeared from the radar as it was making its landing approach at Northern Airport in Smolensk.

The plane crashed in the forest 300 metres from the runway. There were 97 people on board, including eight crew members. There were no survivors.

The airplane exploded on impact. Three brigades of 40 fire fighters with 11 pieces of equipment were dispatched at 10:51am to put out the fire.

By 11:01am the fire was extinguished. We then sent reinforcements to the scene. All the victims' bodies have been recovered. We have begun sending them to Moscow with the full cooperation and support of the local authorities and the governor of the Smolensk Region.

In Moscow, we organised a meeting of forensic medical examiners. The personnel is in place. Everything is ready to receive the relatives and the Polish delegation tomorrow.

All the resources needed for the job are at our disposal. That concludes my report.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Mr Levitin (addressing Igor Levitin), how is the Transport Ministry's work coming along?

Igor Levitin: Right after we received word of the incident, I contacted the Polish Transport Minister and we pledged to work together.

The technical commission of the Russian Defence Ministry and the Intergovernmental Aviation Committee will work with their Polish counterparts to get the investigation underway. They have just arrived. And now we will work with them on-site.

We have found two flight data recorders - one recording instrument readouts and the other recording audio. But we did not touch anything before our colleagues arrived at the site. As soon as we co-ordinate with them, that we have started work on-site, we plan to bring - again in cooperation with them - the recorders to Moscow, to our institute, where they will jointly study and listen to all the exchanges between the pilots and dispatchers.

The weather conditions were bad - the fog cover was near complete. Visibility was estimated 400 metres, while the norm is 1000.

Vladimir Putin: The norm is 1000?

Igor Levitin: 1000 metres.

Vladimir Putin: And visibility was 400?

Igor Levitin: Yes, and the pilot was warned about the bad weather condition. The conversation was in Russian. We now want to confirm all of this on the recorders - as it all happened. But he was notified of the bad weather conditions.

Vladimir Putin: The pilot made the decision to proceed?

Igor Levitin: The pilot made the decision to proceed independently, even though the dispatcher, who knew the conditions, warned him and informed him of data on the fog that was available from the radar.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Neradko (addressing Alexander Neradko, chief of the Commission for the Regulation of Air Traffic), do you have anything to add?

Alexander Neradko: We have confirmation that weather conditions were indeed bad - visibility was below the established minimum of 1000 metres. The plane first struck a single tree about eight metres tall at a distance of approximately 1200 metres from the runway. At that distance, the plane should have been at an altitude of about 60 metres.

The plane proceeded to strike more trees, broke up in mid-air, hit the ground and exploded.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Bastrykin (addressing Alexander Bastrykin), how many people do you have on the investigation team?

Alexander Bastrykin: Today at the site there are 60 investigators from the central office, local government and criminology lab. There is a large group of forensic doctors. We are now combing the scene. All the victims have been identified. We have questioned the first eyewitnesses, including officials who were guiding the airplane.

We have retrieved the black boxes, which confirm the nature of the exchanges between ground control and the crew. From the questioning, we found out that ground control did not recommend that the crew attempt a landing. They suggested that the crew make a second approach and then think about landing at a different airport. But the Polish crew did not follow the recommendation and proceeded with the landing.

Vladimir Putin: Wait a second. I'd like to ask the presidential envoy a question. At President Medvedev's order, a Russian delegation headed by Presidential Envoy Georgy Poltavchenko were at the airport to greet the Polish president and his entourage. Mr Poltavchenko, this means you were a witness to this accident. As far as you can tell, what happened there, what did you see, including when you arrived at the scene of the crash? As I understand it, you were among the first to arrive at the scene.

Georgy Poltavchenko: Indeed, Mr Putin, Governor Sergei Antufyev, I and members of the delegation were waiting for the plane to land. An air-traffic controller came up to us and told us that weather conditions were bad. This was indeed the case. I actually think that visibility was probably at less than 400 metres. This was sometime around 10:30 am. Visibility was at around 100-150 metres. The fog was very thick, getting even wetter upwards.

The air-traffic controller told us that they had suggested to the Polish flight crew that they fly to a different airport. There were three options - Minsk, Vitebsk or Vnukovo. The controller said that since they had enough fuel, the flight crew decided to proceed to Smolensk, take a look at the situation and then make a decision.

Then controllers reported that the flight crew were going to attempt to land. We could barely hear the plane approaching, did not hear the engine. Then there was an impact and strange noises that did not sound like a crash. And after that we were told that the plane crash-landed. We arrived at the crash site in literally three minutes.

I would like to commend the teamwork of the firefighters and the Emergencies Ministry personnel, because all the necessary preliminary actions were taken. The area was roped off and the search for survivors began.

Vladimir Putin: You were at the crash site in just three minutes?

Georgy Poltavchenko: In three minutes.