14 DAY TRIAL // Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, together with the families of many high-rank officials, lost their lives in a plane crash as the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing at a regional Russian airport, The Guardian informs. There were 132 passengers on the plane and none survived, as the plane caught fire and broke to pieces when trying to land.
The pilot had been informed only hours ago that the Smolensk airport had been closed because of thick fog. Instead of landing at Smolensk as scheduled, he was asked to direct the plane to Moscow or Minsk, but he declined and decided he could stick to the initial plan. It would seem he made three unsuccessful attempts to land the plane – on the fourth, it got caught in trees, burst into flames and eventually broke into pieces when it hit the ground. The crash occurred only 1.5km from Smolensk, the report says.
“The governor of the west Russian town of Smolensk confirmed there were no survivors from the Tupulov Tu-154 plane, which came down at 11am (7am GMT) about a mile (1.5km) from Smolensk airport. ‘The Polish presidential plane did not make it to the runway while landing. Tentative findings indicate that it hit the treetops and fell apart. Nobody has survived the disaster,’ Smolensk governor Segei Anufriyev told the Russia 24 news channel. The Polish government will hold an emergency meeting later today. Officials said the head of the Polish army, the governor of the central bank and the head of the presidential administration were also on board the plane, as well as Kaczynski, his wife and the families of other senior officials,” The Guardian writes.
“Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed the cause of the air catastrophe was bad weather. ‘According to provisional information the crash happened because the plane failed to land at the military airport near Smolensk in conditions of severe fog,’ one official said. Kaczynski was visiting Smolensk to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, which took place in forests outside the town. The massacre of Polish officers by Russian secret police was one of the most notorious incidents of the second world war, and has long been a source of tension between Warsaw and Moscow,” the report further says.
As of now, the crash is billed a “human error.” An investigation is currently underway to determine how it took place exactly, while the Polish government is assembling for a temporary solution out of the crisis.