Polish president killed in plane crash
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A chartered plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed near the Smolensk airport in western Russia Saturday, killing all 96 people on board, said Russian officials.
Earlier reports put the number of people on board the plane at 132, but Russia's Emergency Ministry later corrected it as 96. Among them, 88 belong to the Polish delegation.
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Polish Parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski would take over presidential duties according to the constitution. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has summoned an extraordinary Cabinet meeting in Warsaw.
The Tupolev Tu-154 flying from Warsaw to the Russia city of Smolensk also carried the president's wife, army chief of staff, Deputy Foreign Minsiter Andrzej Kremer and the central bank governor, said Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Pszkowski.
It crashed some 1.5 km from Smolensk airport in foggy weather and caught fire, Russia news agencies reported.
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This TV grab taken on April 10, 2010 shows the crash site of a Tupolev Tu-154 plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski near the Smolensk airport in western Russia. The plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed near the Smolensk airport Saturday, killing the president and all 96 people on board, said Russian officials.[Xinhua] |
"It clipped the tops of the trees, crashed down and broke into pieces," Russia-24 television news network quoted the governor of the Smolensk region Sergei Antufiev as saying.
An official from the Investigative Committee within the Russian prosecution system said the plane was "on approach in thick fog."
The Russian television's broadcast live footage showed that the plane's wreckage scattered in a forest with parts of it still on fire.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was a chartered plane. The rescuers are still searching the missing black box.
Pilot error was suspected of causing the crash, a spokesman for the Smolensk government said.
Andrei Yevseyenkov, the local government's spokesman, said "the pilot was advised to land in Minsk, but decided to land in Smolensk."
A source with the investigation committee told the Interfax news agency that bad weather, human error and mechanical fault were considered the possible reasons behind the tragedy.
A security source told the RIA Novosti news agency that human error was most likely to blame for the crash.
"A mistake by the crew during landing maneuvers has supposedly caused the crash," the unnamed source said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sent Minister for Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu, to the crash site and ordered the establishment of an investigation committee headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to investigate the air disaster.
Kaczynski had been flying to Russia to take part in ceremonies commemorating the 1940 mass executions of Polish military and public service staff by the Soviet security police, and was scheduled to deliver an address in Katyn.
Around 22,000 Polish army officers and public servants perished in the massacre, which the Soviets subsequently blamed on the Nazis.
The Soviet Union acknowledged the massacre in 1990. Russia also recognized Soviet responsibility for the mass shooting, but has not classified it as a war crime, something Warsaw has demanded.
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