Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Polish President, 131 others killed in plane crash

By The Assam Tribune

MOSCOW, April 10 � Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed along with his wife and 130 others when a plane carrying them crashed while landing in dense fog against advice by Russian air authorities in the southwestern region of Smolensk today, reports PTI.

The TU-154 Presidential plane crashed at 11 am local time (1230 hrs IST), breaking into several pieces about 300 metres from the runway at Severny airport after hitting tree tops in dense fog, Russia�s Emergencies Ministry said.

Sixty-year-old Kaczynski was flying with a delegation to take part in the Katyn memorial ceremonies at the site where 22,000 Polish military officers were executed on the orders of Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin during the Second World War.

A total of 132 people, including President Kaczynski and his wife Mana, were killed in the crash, Vladimr Markin, spokesman of Russia�s Investigation Committee, said.

�It (the plane) clipped the tops of the trees, crashed down and broke into pieces,� Smolensk Governor, Sergei Antufiev, told Russia-24 television news network. �There were no survivors.�

According to Russian Air Space Monitoring Service, the pilot of the plane was advised to land either in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, or Moscow because of bad weather at the airport where it crashed.

But the commander of the Presidential plane refused to land elsewhere and the aircraft crashed on its fourth attempt to land in dense fog, it said.

In Warsaw, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Petr Paszkowski confirmed that President Kaczynski was on board the ill-fated Tu-154 aircraft.

He said that Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer, Army Chief of Staff Gen Franciszek Gagor and National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek were also aboard the plane.

Next Story