Saturday, April 10
09:23 – First media report, from Reuters, comes in: Airplane crashed with Polish president on board.
09:25 – Polish Press Agency (PAP) confirms.
09:36 – Emergency services extinguish burning plane and try to rescue passengers.
09:41 – Russian Ministry of Special Events: 87 people died in the catastrophe of the president’s Tupolew airplane.
09:49 – Government Information Center: The Polish premier is on the way to Warsaw from Gdansk.
09:55 – Governor of the Smolensk district: Nobody survived the crash.
10:03 – Russian Public Prosecutor’s Office: Polish president’s T-154 plane crashed in heavy fog.
10:08 – Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Most probably nobody survived the crash.
10:09 – Polish Government Information Center: Polish Premier Donald Tusk calls for special session of Council of Ministers. All Ministers are on their way to Warsaw.
10:15 – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev establishes special commission to investigate the cause of the crash. The Russian premier will personally take charge of it.
10:25 – Office of the speaker of Sejm (the lower house of the Polish Parliament): The speaker is on his way to Warsaw. [According to the Polish constitution, in the case of a president’s death, the speaker of the Sejm assumes the duties of the president.]
10:32 – Emergency services work at the airport in Smolensk. Outside the airport, Polish reporters are waiting. They are not allowed to see the site of the crash.
10:36 – Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman: Everything is pointing toward the likelihood that the presidential couple is dead.
10:40 – Smolensk authority: No black boxes have been recovered.
10:41 – Investigation Committee at General Prosecutors Office of the Russian Federation: There were 132 people on board the Tu-154 plane.
10:55 – Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms: Nobody survived the catastrophe.
