Plane Crash In Russia Wipes Out Polish Government

April 11, 2010 (LPAC)—Early Saturday morning, a Polish government plane, carrying President Lech Kaczynski and a large delegation of top government and military officials, crashed near Smolensk, Russia, killing all 97 people on board. Among those killed was the President, his wife, the head of the national security office, two other presidential aides, the national bank president, the deputy parliamentary speaker, the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, the heads of the air and land forces, and several members of parliament and the Polish clergy. The group was traveling to a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Forest massacre, in which 22,000 Polish officers were killed by the Soviet NKVD. In what was hailed as an important reconciliation gesture, Russian Prime Minister Putin attended an official commemoration, along with the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, earlier in the week. The first Russian leader to ever attend the annual commemoration, Putin declared, "We bow our heads to those who bravely met death here." And Russian television aired a famous Polish documentary film, Katyn, this week in another Russian gesture.

By all accounts, including from Russian air traffic control officials, the Tu-154 aircraft was told to abort the landing at Smolensk, and instead land in either Minsk, Belarus, or Moscow, due to severe fog in the area. However, the pilot chose to ignore the warnings and attempt the landing. The plane crashed through forests and broke into pieces. Prime Minister Putin announced he was taking personal charge of the investigation, and he made arrangements to meet his Polish counterpart Tusk at the crash site later in the day on Saturday.

Russian President Medvedev responded quickly to the crash, posting statements in both English and Polish on the presidential website, and placing calls to top Polish officials, including Prime Minister Tusk.