mrmcdonaldduck
April 10th, 2010, 07:34 AM
A TOTAL of 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and other Polish officials, were killed when their plane crashed in heavy fog today as it came in to land at Smolensk airport in western Russia.
"According to confirmed information, there were 96 people aboard the Tu-154 that crashed near Smolensk, including 88 members of the Polish delegation," a spokesperson for the Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax news agency.
Polish officials confirmed Mr Kaczynski was on the plane, and Russian officials confirmed everyone on the plane was killed.
The aircraft crashed a few hundred metres short of the runway, and experts on the scene are searching for the flight data recorders.
Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Piotr Paszkowski, said there were 89 people on the Polish delegation passenger list but one person had not shown up.
"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,'' Mr Paszkowski said.
Mr Kaczynski, the identical twin brother of former Polish prime minister Jaroslaw, was accompanied by his wife Maria, the Polish army's chief of staff and Deputy Foreign Minsiter Andrzej Kremer.
The Governor of Poland's national bank, Slawomir Skrzypek, was also killed in the crash, as well as the Polish deputy speaker.
Pilot error was suspected as a cause in the crash, Russian news agencies reported.
"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 the Russian region of Smolensk as saying.
The plane's passengers, which also included Polish lawmakers and historians, were traveling as part of an 88-strong delegation to a memorial service in Katyn forest, where thousands of officers and members of Poland's elite were killed by Soviet troops 70 years ago.
Footage showed the plane broken into numerous pieces, including engines and a huge chunk of the plane's vertical stabilizer caked in mud, strewn over a large area in forest.
Firefighters doused portions of the plane that were still ablaze while groups of security personnel in camouflage uniforms and investigators in civilian clothes inspected the wreckage.
Bronislaw Komorowski, head of the Polish lower house, or Sejm, took over presidential duties in line with the constitution, his office announced.
A government spokesman said that a presidential election was to be scheduled to find a replacement to Kaczynski, as the Polish Government was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting in Warsaw early afternoon.
Mr Komorowski, a 57-year-old former anti-communist dissident from an aristocratic family, was the official candidate of the liberal Civic Platform (PO) for presidential elections scheduled for autumn.
He was expected to take on Mr Kaczynski, representing the conservative right wing, who however had not officially announced his candidacy.
The crash occurred three days after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, together attended a memorial for the victims of the massacre at Katyn.
The Putin-Tusk meeting there was seen as a huge symbolic advance in Russia's often thorny relations with Poland.
Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered condolences to Poland and vowed a thorough probe of the crash, news agencies reported.
Mr Medvedev immediately appointed Putin as the head of a commission to investigate the crash and sent Russia's emergency situations minister, Sergei Shoigu, to the site.
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damn, poor guy.
"According to confirmed information, there were 96 people aboard the Tu-154 that crashed near Smolensk, including 88 members of the Polish delegation," a spokesperson for the Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax news agency.
Polish officials confirmed Mr Kaczynski was on the plane, and Russian officials confirmed everyone on the plane was killed.
The aircraft crashed a few hundred metres short of the runway, and experts on the scene are searching for the flight data recorders.
Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Piotr Paszkowski, said there were 89 people on the Polish delegation passenger list but one person had not shown up.
"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,'' Mr Paszkowski said.
Mr Kaczynski, the identical twin brother of former Polish prime minister Jaroslaw, was accompanied by his wife Maria, the Polish army's chief of staff and Deputy Foreign Minsiter Andrzej Kremer.
The Governor of Poland's national bank, Slawomir Skrzypek, was also killed in the crash, as well as the Polish deputy speaker.
Pilot error was suspected as a cause in the crash, Russian news agencies reported.
"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 the Russian region of Smolensk as saying.
The plane's passengers, which also included Polish lawmakers and historians, were traveling as part of an 88-strong delegation to a memorial service in Katyn forest, where thousands of officers and members of Poland's elite were killed by Soviet troops 70 years ago.
Footage showed the plane broken into numerous pieces, including engines and a huge chunk of the plane's vertical stabilizer caked in mud, strewn over a large area in forest.
Firefighters doused portions of the plane that were still ablaze while groups of security personnel in camouflage uniforms and investigators in civilian clothes inspected the wreckage.
Bronislaw Komorowski, head of the Polish lower house, or Sejm, took over presidential duties in line with the constitution, his office announced.
A government spokesman said that a presidential election was to be scheduled to find a replacement to Kaczynski, as the Polish Government was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting in Warsaw early afternoon.
Mr Komorowski, a 57-year-old former anti-communist dissident from an aristocratic family, was the official candidate of the liberal Civic Platform (PO) for presidential elections scheduled for autumn.
He was expected to take on Mr Kaczynski, representing the conservative right wing, who however had not officially announced his candidacy.
The crash occurred three days after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, together attended a memorial for the victims of the massacre at Katyn.
The Putin-Tusk meeting there was seen as a huge symbolic advance in Russia's often thorny relations with Poland.
Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered condolences to Poland and vowed a thorough probe of the crash, news agencies reported.
Mr Medvedev immediately appointed Putin as the head of a commission to investigate the crash and sent Russia's emergency situations minister, Sergei Shoigu, to the site.
_________________________________________________________
damn, poor guy.