April 10, 2010: POLISH PRESIDENT DIES IN PLANE CRASH (AND 88 OTHERS)- CONFIRMED

Al Jazeera ^ | April 10, 2010

[lizol]

Polish president dies in air crash

A plane carrying Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president, has crashed near Smolensk airport in western Russia, killing all on board, Russian officials have reported.

Polish officials confirmed on Saturday that Kaczynski was on board the flight with his wife, as well as Slawomir Skrzypek, the president of Poland's central bank, Andrzej Kremer, the deputy foreign minister and the army chief of staff.

The crash occurred about 1.5km from Smolensk airport in foggy conditions.

[lizol]

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[Luke21]

Greatest country in Europe these days. Long live Poland. What a loss! What an unimaginable tragedy!

[lizol]

[exnavy]

My condolences, RIP.

[JDoutrider]

Prayers for Poland...

[Cindy]

I’m so very sorry to read this Lizol.

I’ll be watching for your updates here.

[VR-21]

A terrible loss for all freedom loving people. How terribly sad. How terribly sad.

[unkus]

This is a terrible tragedy. God bless Poland.

[KarenMarie]

Prayers and sympathy to the families and loved ones. So tragic.
:(

[freekitty]

RIP

[dragnet2]

Was this a commercial flight? The President fly’s commercial?

[DoughtyOne]

Sorry to hear of this Lizol. Poland, I’m sorry for your loss folks.

It will be interesting to hear what happened here. You would think the Presidential plane would be rather safe. Sounds like fog may have been a factor, at least early on it does.

[Cindy]

[No survivors]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8612825.stm

Page last updated at 08:16 GMT, Saturday, 10 April 2010 09:16 UK

“Polish President Lech Kaczynski ‘in plane crash’”

SNIPPET: “They were in Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when Soviets killed thousands of Poles.

The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT).”

SNIPPET: “Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.

“As it was preparing for landing, the Polish president’s aircraft did not make it to the landing strip,” he said.

“According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces. There are no survivors in that crash.”

[Salamander]

OMG.

[dragnet2]

A presidential plane with 132 passengers?

Seems like a lot of people for a government flight with top dignitaries on board.

[Cindy]

I’ll pray for the people of Poland.

[Liberty Valance]

*prayers*

[LeoWindhorse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PL_TU-154M_Goverment_Plane.JPG

[lizol]

The list of those, who died (the most important ones)

Lech Kaczyński - the President

Maria Kaczyńska - the First Lady

Ryszard Kaczorowski - last Polish President in exile

Jerzy Szmajdziński - Vice Speaker of the Lower House (left wing leader)

Krzysztof Putra - Vice Speaker of the Lower House

Władysław Stasiak - chief of the President's Chancellary

Aleksander Szczygło - chief of the Office for National Security

Paweł Wypych - presidential Secrtetary of state

Mariusz Handzlik - as above

Andrzej Kremer - vice Minister of Foreign Affairs

gen. Franciszek Gągor - chief of staff of the Polish Army

Przemysław Gosiewski - rigth wing prominent politician

Zbigniew Wassermann - as above

Janusz Kochanowski - Polish ombudsman

Sławomir Skrzypek - chief of the Polish National Bank

Janusz Kurtyka - chief of the institute for the National Rememberance

Bishop Tadeusz Płoski - Catholic field bishop of the Polish Army (head Catholic chaplain)

Archbishop Miron Chodakowski - Orthodox field bishop of the Polish Army

And many, many, many others ....

God - like a war ......