Polish president Lech Kaczynski killed in plane crash

The pilot was told Smolensk airport was closed because of thick fog, according to the news agency Interfax. He was offered a choice of landing instead in either Moscow or Minsk, the capital of Belarus. But he decided to continue with the original flight plan and land at Smolensk.

The pilot made three unsuccessful attempts to land before the crash. On the fourth try and plane fell apart, Interfax said, citing officials at Smolensk's interior ministry.
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:rolleyes:
 
Happened in rather interesting circumstances:

The plane with President Kaczynski was enroute to Smolensk, as all officials onboard were heading to Katyn Forest to attend 70th anniversary commemorations of mass murder of 21,768 Polish prisoners of war captured by NKVD when Soviet Russia invaded Poland in September 1939. The prisoners were elite of military officers, intellectuals and public servants.

The circumstances leading to Katyn massacre and the victims of it, have never been fully acknowledged or recognized by Russian officials as a crime. This fact has always remained the major source of tension and one of the biggest issues in relations between .pl and .ru.
On April 7th this year Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was to became the first Russian or Soviet leader to join Polish officials in commemorating the anniversary of the Katyn Massacre. However, at last minute, under pressure from politicians, Putin refused to issue official apology/acknowledgment of the massacre and failed to declare the killings as war crimes. He also denied Polish historians access to all the documents on the massacre. And now the presidential plane with elite military pilots in cockpit, Polish President and 88 politicians, parliament members and officials onboard crash in the same forest.

The curse of Katyn...
 
Fens said:
Are you for real? Poland is an EU member state and one of our closest allies, one of only a handfull of countries to support Britain and the US in sending soldiers to both Afghanistan AND Iraq - how exactly are they going to become the 'next big threat' ?

If anything the 'nut job' was Kaczynski himself (a neo-conservative that most young Poles could not wait to get rid of) and sad as this day is it may in a twisted way prove to be a positive step for Poland. Have to say it is very silly of them to still be flying top people around in ancient Soviet era aircraft though.
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I know nothing of Polish politics, but if they had no plan in an event like this then what happens next?
 
There is some interesting speculation that it was the Russians that took the plane down. Probably unfounded, but interesting none-the-less.

I don't think the consequences of this will matter too much though, the place might become slightly more authoritarian if the military take up temporary power, it might become (more?) corrupt if someone unsuitable is placed into power, it may infringe upon Polands sovereignty if the E.U or certain foreign powers have a say of who is put into power, but it's not going to destabilize the region or create any significant shocks.
 
:(

I heard this on another forum, don't know how accurate it is:

Also, President Kaczynski had a history of forcing pilots to land despite very bad weather. The last pilot asked to do that got in a hell of ****storm for refusing him. This one apparently obeyed, as this was the plane's fourth approach, still missed. The crash happened after that, when he went full throttle and tried making a turn for yet another approach. The tip of the wing caught the trees and teh plane crashed with full force into the ground.
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It ties in with the Russians directing them to land at a different air port.
 
Suprised, if it's true, that a pilot can get in trouble for refusing to land. The pilot is always in charge of the plane, not a passenger, however important they may be?
 
RossG said:
Suprised, if it's true, that a pilot can get in trouble for refusing to land. The pilot is always in charge of the plane, not a passenger, however important they may be?
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That is true in principal but like everything else in life it doesn't work quite like that in practice
 
meghatronic said:
I don't understand how this could happen. Stupid Polish administration to put many important people on an old plane together.
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I don't think age of the plane had anything to do with it - both presidential Air Force 101 and 102 tu-154M's were about 20 years old, it might sound like a lot but both planes are actually several months younger than the famous Air Force One fleet.

Also - the "all eggs in one basket" comment somewhere up there - it was three hour flight to a military airport in bad condition, without any telemetry units on the ground, with a landing strip that was 500m too short for anything newer, bigger, heavier, let alone two planes in short succession.
 
Fens said:
If anything the 'nut job' was Kaczynski himself (a neo-conservative that most young Poles could not wait to get rid of) and sad as this day is it may in a twisted way prove to be a positive step for Poland.
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We don't need this kind of comment today. Show some respect. :(
 
Mr Jack said:
:(

I heard this on another forum, don't know how accurate it is:



It ties in with the Russians directing them to land at a different air port.
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I've also read before that he has asked pilots to land in bad conditions, its possible the same situation has occurred here.

Still RIP, But I can't believe they had so many important people on board at once.
 
Third Opinion said:
Just purely speculation but a Russina aircraft 20 years old plus. Probably not as well maintained as the Western airlines.

Tradgic.
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What has that to do with a pilot trying to land into a forest ? The newest Boeing or Airbus would also break up if it tried to land into the treetops.
 
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