Free Republic

The airplane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski Saturday is deeply shocking — but, sadly, not a complete surprise. Poland has for years been calling the Soviet-era military aircraft used by Polish officials “flying coffins.” Poland’s former Prime Minister Leszek Miller once had to leave the government airplane at an airport in Germany after an engine caught on fire. He was later nearly killed in a helicopter crash — and still politicians were too afraid of the public reaction to buy new aircraft. The possibility of a government aircraft crashing and killing an important official was so strongly discussed...

Investigators seeking the cause of a plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and a delegation including dozens of high-level officials on Saturday are likely to focus on both the Tupolev 154 jetliner and the pilots' actions. The Russian-made plane, which was 20 years old, had been overhauled in December at a Russian aviation facility and had flown relatively few hours. The Tu-154, which crashed outside Smolensk, Russia, was on its fourth attempt to land amid heavy fog. Investigators will seek to understand why the crew tried bring the plane down in such unfavorable conditions. Russian media...

(CNN) -- Polish President Lech Kaczynski's plane, which crashed Saturday in western Russia, killing Kaczynski and scores of other people, was overhauled last year, [...] Alexei Gusev, the general director of Aviakor Factory, told CNN that the plane, a Tupolev-154, received major refurbishing and repair in December 2009. The work included rebuilding all of the engines, he said. His company also provided the Polish government with repair and maintenance parts for the next six years. "The plane has been in use very little since that major repair," Gusev said. "Speaking openly, we believe that this tragedy could not have...