Poland’s President and Dozens of Officials Killed in Plane Crash

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and dozens high officials died in a plane crash in Russia on Saturday morning.
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Poland’s President and Dozens of Officials Killed in Plane Crash
Poland's president Lech Kaczynski speaks at a press conference at the Presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, on April 8. A plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior officials crashed while landing in fog in the western Russian city of Smolensk, on April 10, killing all on board. (Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images)
4/10/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/POLAND-PRESIDENT.jpg" alt="Poland's president Lech Kaczynski speaks at a press conference at the Presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, on April 8. A plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior officials crashed while landing in fog in the western Russian city of Smolensk, on April 10, killing all on board. (Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Poland's president Lech Kaczynski speaks at a press conference at the Presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, on April 8. A plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior officials crashed while landing in fog in the western Russian city of Smolensk, on April 10, killing all on board. (Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1821248"/></a>
Poland's president Lech Kaczynski speaks at a press conference at the Presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, on April 8. A plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior officials crashed while landing in fog in the western Russian city of Smolensk, on April 10, killing all on board. (Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images)

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and dozens of high officials died in a plane crash in the western Russia Smolensk region on Saturday.

Russian officials say the plane clipped the treetops as it approached Severnyi Airport in the city of Smolensk, then went down, crashed, and burned. The crash killed all 97 on board including 89 passengers and 8 crew members, according to Russia’s Emergency Ministry.

Most of the Polish political elite were on the plane including ministers, members of Parliament, Polish clergy, historians, the directors of the national security service, and other top officials.

Russian TV channels showed the plane’s wreckage scattered in a fog-blanketed forest. Rescuers have found one of the two flight recorders, and bodies recovered so far are being transported to facilities for indetification.

A possible reason for the crash is reported to be a pilot error.

“The cause of the plane crash was apparently an error by the crew during the approach to landing,” Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official in Smolensk as saying.

The pilots were advised by controllers at the Smolensk airport to divert, four times, but they did not. They were flying a Polish- owned Soviet-built Tupplev-154 jet, which was about 20 years-old. This type of plane is known to have a history of accidents.

The top Polish officials were traveling to a memorial service in Katyn forest near Smolensk city, where about 22,000 officers and members of Poland’s elite were killed by Soviet security forces 70 years ago.

According to the Polish Constitution, the interim leader of the country will be the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowsk. New elections must be called within two weeks and then held within two months of deciding the election date.

Many people have gathered in front of Kaczynski’s presidential office in Warsaw, Poland, to mourn this tragedy, by lighting candles and laying wreaths. Many people were crying, so much that they couldn’t speak, as the national flag was lowered to half-mast.