Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed when a plane carrying 132 people crashed in thick fog on its approach to a Russian airport Saturday, killing everyone on board, officials said.
Central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and several senior government officials were also among those on board the Tupolev Tu-154 plane, which came down as it neared Smolensk airport in western Russia.
Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufyev, speaking on Russian television, said there were no survivors. Polish state news agency PAP also reported that there were no survivors.
Television pictures showed the burning fuselage and fragments of the plane scattered in a forest. The crash occurred about 2 km (1.3 miles) from Smolensk airport.
“The plane caught fire after the crash. Teams began attempting to pull out passengers from the badly damaged airplane,” said a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman in Warsaw.
Kaczynski’s wife Maria was also on board, along with several high-ranking government officials. They included the chief of Poland’s military Franciszek Gagor and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.
In the case of a president’s death, the speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, takes over as head of state, Komorowski’s assistant Jerzy Smolinski, told Reuters.
Kaczynski had been flying to Katyn, near Smolensk, to commemorate Russian and Polish victims of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
Thousands of Polish prisoners of war and intellectuals were murdered at Katyn by Soviet forces in spring 1940 in an enduring symbol for Poles of their suffering under Soviet rule.
Families of those killed at Katyn were also on board the plane, the Polish government official at the airport said.
‘Pilot error’
Local authorities said that pilot error may have been the cause of the crash.
“The pilot was advised to land in Minsk, but decided to land in Smolensk,” Andrei Yevseyenkov, a spokesman for the local government, said.
Chris Yates, an aviation expert, told Al Jazeera that the Tupolev Tu-154 is capable of operating in extreme weather conditions and able to land on unpaved airstrips.
“These things are built like tanks,” he said via email correspondence. “From early reports, it would seem to be a fluke accident.”
Komorowski, Poland’s acting head of state, declared a week of mourning after the crash.
“We are united – there is no [political] left or right – we are united in national mourning,” he said.
Rafal Kiepuszewski, a Polish journalist, said the news came as a shock to the Polish people.
“The fact that much of the Polish political establishment appears to have been wiped out on this single flight has really come as a profound shock to the Polish nation,” he said.
As soon as the news was confirmed, a crowd began to gather in front of the presidential palace, laying flowers and lighting candles.
Poland had been due to hold a presidential election in October, when Kaczynski was likely to have run against the liberal Komorowski.
The conservative Kaczynski, who had served as president of Poland since 2005, had a reputation for being incorruptible and was a popular figure.
Prior to the presidency, he served as the mayor of Warsaw
Source: 234next.com
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