News & Politics - Plane crash kills Polish leader, scores of passengers

vc318 · 04-10-2010, 07:01 AM

Polish president among scores dead in jet crash - Europe- msnbc.com

Polish president among scores dead in jet crash

SMOLENSK, Russia - Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia on Saturday, killing 96, officials said.

Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the Soviet-era Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.

The Army chief of staff, Gen. Franciszek Gagor, National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also on board, the Polish foreign ministry said.

Russia's Emergency Ministry said there were 96 dead, 88 part of a Polish state delegation. Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Piotr Paszkowski, said there were 89 people on the passenger list but one person had not shown up.

Earlier, several reports had put the death toll at 132. There was no explanation for the change.

"We still cannot fully understand the scope of this tragedy and what it means for us in the future. Nothing like this has ever happened in Poland," Paszkowski said. "We can assume with great certainty that all persons on board have been killed."

The governor of the Smolensk region, where the crash took place about 11 a.m. (3 a.m. ET), also said no one survived.

State news channel Rossiya-24 showed footage from the crash site, with pieces of the plane scattered widely amid leafless trees and small fires burning in woods shrouded with fog. A tail fin with the Polish red and white colors stuck up from the debris.

"The Polish presidential plane did not make it to the runway while landing. Tentative findings indicate that it hit the treetops and fell apart," regional governor Sergei Anufriev said on Rossiya-24. "Nobody has survived the disaster."

**Karma Police** · 04-10-2010, 07:37 AM

It's an awful day in the history of our countr...just awful...and it's ironic that the elite of our coutnry died 70 years after what happened in Katyn...ironic.

It's a mess right now.

**Callace** · 04-10-2010, 03:24 PM

I am so sorry to hear this

Such a tragedy for Poland

**Karma Police** · 04-10-2010, 05:21 PM

It really is.

I'm so sorry for the entire nation but especially for all those families who lost somebody, my friend lost her uncle.

**Wildfire Girl** · 04-10-2010, 05:35 PM

I saw the article on MSN today. Just devastating. I'm not sure how much of the government was killed, but I can only imagine the distraught state of the country right now.

**sunnykerr** · 04-10-2010, 05:37 PM

It is such a tragedy.

Do they have any idea what caused the crash?

**Karma Police** · 04-10-2010, 05:41 PM

Polish and Russian specialists are investigating it now. It might have been the error of the pilots.

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I'm not sure how much of the government was killed, but I can only imagine the distraught state of the country right now.

Too many.

**Wildfire Girl** · 04-10-2010, 05:43 PM

I know. HORRIBLE. Period.

annette anne · 04-11-2010, 08:22 AM

About 60 main politicians, 7 generals - leaders of our army, religious leaders and many of the 'staff' and the representatives of Katyn's families... The last president of Poland on emigration, Kaczorowski, and prominent figure in our history, Anna Walentynowicz were also killed... 98 people. It is just so hard to believe. It is still unthinkable for me. Many of the bodies are still not identificated.

They brought our President's body today and when I saw the President's daughter... this tragedy is just enormous. There was a politician aboard that was visting my school couple of times and was living in my city... She made a lot of good to us. It is so ard to believe that now she is gone with the others...

But watching how people react around the world is so spirit-rising, really. Many countries will mourn with us, it is truly amazing...

**Karma Police** · 04-11-2010, 08:31 AM

Quote:

It is just so hard to believe. It is still unthinkable for me.

It really is...when I was watching TV yesterday, I had tears in my eyes, it's just so sad and heartbreaking especially for the families.

Quote:

But watching how people react around the world is so spirit-rising, really. Many countries will mourn with us, it is truly amazing...

It's amazing that they all reach out to us in this sad and hard moment. Brazil will have 3 days of grief, Hungary also had 2 minutes of silence today at noon and tomorrow will be a grief day in the entire EU. The reaction is amazing.

vc318 · 04-11-2010, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karma Police (View Post)

It really is.

I'm so sorry for the entire nation but especially for all those families who lost somebody, my friend lost her uncle.

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.

Quote:

About 60 main politicians, 7 generals - leaders of our army, religious leaders and many of the 'staff' and the representatives of Katyn's families... The last president of Poland on emigration, Kaczorowski, and prominent figure in our history, Anna Walentynowicz were also killed... 98 people. It is just so hard to believe. It is still unthinkable for me. Many of the bodies are still not identificated.

Truly terrible news.

**Wildfire Girl** · 04-12-2010, 12:27 PM

Sheesh, I'm sorry to hear about all this. That it's so close to home for some of you, and so sad that many bodies haven't even been identified yet.

**sunnykerr** · 04-12-2010, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Poland crash sparks travel review

Poland's acting president is to review travel rules for military officials after the president and other top officials were killed in a plane crash.

Bronislaw Komorowski announced the move as mourning continued for the 96 people killed when the jet crashed in fog while trying to land in western Russia.

President Lech Kaczynski's body is to lie in state in a closed coffin.

Questions are being asked about why the jet's pilots ignored advice to divert to another airport because of the fog.

Russia flew the bodies of victims, many of them believed to be disfigured beyond recognition, to morgues in Moscow where only about a quarter of them have been identified.

The body of the president's wife, Maria Kaczynska, has been identified and is to due to be returned to Poland on Tuesday.

There is no precedent for a dual funeral involving a head of state and his first lady, but a spokesman for the president's office said a joint funeral would be held once the bodies of all those killed had been repatriated.

Those killed had been due to attend a memorial for the Polish victims of the World War II massacre by Soviet secret police at Katyn in the Smolensk region.

Commentators in Poland have stressed the irony that so many senior figures were killed making a visit to commemorate victims of a massacre which targeted the elite of Poland's officer corps.

'Advised against landing'

The Soviet-built Tu-154 airliner clipped tree-tops as it tried to land at a former air base north of the city of Smolensk on Saturday morning.

Polish Prosecutor General Andrzej Seremet said that Polish investigators had talked to the flight controller and flight supervisor and concluded that there had been "no conditions for landing".

"The tower was advising against the landing," he said.

Polish investigators, he said, had not yet listened to the cockpit conversations recorded on the plane's recovered black boxes but would do so to see if there had been "any suggestions made to the pilots" from other people aboard the plane.

There has been speculation the pilot and co-pilot, who were both aged 36, were under pressure not to delay the landing.

Sergei Ivanov, Russia's first deputy prime minister, said the black boxes were "absolutely functional and recorded absolutely all the information, sound as well as parametric [information], till the moment of crash".

"It is reliably confirmed that warning of the unfavourable weather conditions at the North airport and recommendations to go to a reserve airport were not only transmitted but received by the crew of the plane," he added.

Mr Seremet said the remains of 87 people had been found so far and he hoped the rest would be retrieved when the crash debris was lifted with heavy machinery.

Special session

A special joint session of the Polish parliament has been called for Tuesday to debate the disaster whose victims included MPs.

It is believed the funerals could be held this weekend.

The crash shocked many Russians as well, the BBC's Duncan Kennedy reports from Warsaw.

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have devoted much time and effort to dealing with the aftermath of the crash, he adds, and Monday was a day of mourning in Russia.

The country was "suffering and grieving together with the Poles", Mr Putin told a cabinet meeting.

Russia's handling of the tragedy has been widely appreciated by many in Poland, though others suggest the thaw in relations may not last, our correspondent says.

"I don't know whether there will be a political breakthrough, because we have many opposing interests with Russia," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on a Polish radio station.

"But we already have an emotional breakthrough and that is already a great deal."

"I must emphasise that the Russian side is behaving with extraordinary openness and, even more, with a Slavic openness and kindness," he added.

At least 130 relatives have been flown to the Russian capital in the hope of helping forensic scientists to identify their loved ones' remains. They are being aided by Polish and Russian psychologists.

"We all had to fulfil this difficult duty," said Rafal Dobrzeniecki, whose fiancee's father died in the crash. "I never had the chance to call him my dear father-in-law, he will always stay in my memory."

BBC News - Poland to review travel rules after deadly air crash

So I guess that's the latest. I want to hear what those black boxes reveal.

**Wildfire Girl** · 04-13-2010, 08:23 AM

Glad to hear they are reviewing the travel policy

**Callace** · 04-13-2010, 08:50 AM

I've heard it commented, that it is kind of ironic really, that this plane went down, since it would not, had it been an ordinary passenger flight. They wouldnt get landing permit under those conditions. But since it's the presidents plane, and he is on a schedule, they broke the rules to try to get him down anyway.


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