Polish prez dies in air crash

Polish prez dies in air crash
96 others include wife, top brass
PTI
MOSCOW, APRIL 10
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country’s top military and civil leaders were killed along with all 97 people onboard the presidential plane that crashed in dense fog, trying to land against advice by air controllers, in western Russia today.
“There were no survivors as the plane hit tree tops and fell apart as it came in to land at the Smolensk airport in thick fog,” Russian and Polish officials said.
Besides the president onboard the ill-fated Soviet era Tupolev-154 aircraft, were his wife Maria, Poland’s last president-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer, Army Chief of Staff General  Franciszek Gagor and National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek.
The body of Kaczynski has been recovered at the site of the crash, Russian agency RIA Novosti reported.
The aircraft was taking the presidential entourage to events to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police under Joseph Stalin.
The recent admission of the incident by the Russian government had lead to improvement in relations between the two neighbours, poisoned for decades by the Katyn massacre.
Initial reports quoting Russia’s Investigation Committee had put the death toll to 132.
But later, spokesperson of Emergency Situations Ministry Irina Andriyanova said there were 88 members of the official delegation, including the Polish president and nine members of the crew, according to the list of passengers.
“But we are not aware whether presidential security guards and service personnel were included in this,” Andriyanova told Rossiya 24 channel.
Other members of the delegation killed in the crash included Deputy Speaker of parliament Jerzego Szmajdzinski, head of the National Security Office Aleksander Szczyglo and presidential aides Pawel Wypych and Mariusz Handzlik.
The preliminary probe blamed pilot error as the prime cause of the crash. “Probably, the pilot error during the landing manoeuvre was the cause of tie crash,” RIA Novosti reported quoting authorities.