How come there isn't a thread about this tragedy in Poland :cry:

 

MOSCOW – Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife died Saturday along with 130 others when their plane crashed while coming in for a landing in western Russia, officials said.

 

The governor of the Smolensk region, where the crash took place about 11 a.m. (0700 GMT), said no one survived.

 

"The Polish presidential plane did not make it to the runway while landing. Tentative findings indicate that it hit the treetops and fell apart," Sergei Anufriev said on state news channel Rossiya-24. "Nobody has survived the disaster."

 

The Polish foreign ministry confirmed that Kaczynski and his wife were aboard the plane.

 

The head of Russia's top investigative body, Sergei Markin, said there were a total of 132 people on the plane, a Tu-154.

 

Kaczynski was flying to Russia for events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police in Katyn and elsewhere during World War II.

 

The presidential plane was a Soviet-built Tupolev TU154M, at least 20 years old. The Army chief of staff, Gen. Franciszek Gagor, National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremoer were on the passenger list.

 

In Warsaw, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an extraordinary meeting of his Cabinet.

 

Kaczynski, 60, became president in December 2005 after defeating Tusk in that year's presidential vote.

 

The nationalist conservative was the twin brother of Poland's opposition leader, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

 

Kaczynski had said he would seek a second term in presidential elections this fall. He was expected to face an uphill struggle against Parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of Tusk's governing Civic Platform party.

 

According to the constitution, Komorowski would take over presidential duties.

 

Kaczynski's wife, Maria, was an economist. They had a daughter, Marta, and two granddaughters.

It's really sad.

 

R.I.P. to all the victims in flight and condolences to friends and family of all the victims and to the whole Poland.

I have very little remorse for the President. Though I agreed with his economic stances, his social policies (particularly towards the LGBT community when he was Mayor of Warsaw) were just hideous.

I have a very good Polish friend who has taken this very badly, so I feel for the Polish people completely - this must be akin to a terrorist attack to them and I think we all know what that feels like. I'm not at all knowledgeable about the Polish parliament though so in that respect, this news would've passed me by.

Absolutely staggering that they were all allowed to travel on the same plane

 

A company I worked for banned its CEO, MD and FD from being on the same plane, they all had to travel individually incase there was a crash so am surprised that so many senior figures were all allowed on the same flight

Also among those killed was Anna Walentynowicz. It was her dismissal from her job at the Gdansk shipyard which led to Solidarity calling a strike in 1980.

 

I had no time for President Kaczynski's homophobia and suspected anti-Semitism but this is still a sad time for Poland. At least the mechanism to replace him and to elect a successor seems to have moved smoothly into action, a sign of a reasonably healthy democracy.

Absolutely staggering that they were all allowed to travel on the same plane

 

A company I worked for banned its CEO, MD and FD from being on the same plane, they all had to travel individually incase there was a crash so am surprised that so many senior figures were all allowed on the same flight

 

This is exactly what I thought.

 

R.I.P. Lech Kaczynski, Maria Kaczynska and the other 130-odd others who died in this tragic crash :(

Edited April 11, 201015 yr by BraySayer

Absolutely horrific! R.I.P.

Such a shame :(

 

 

 

In a minorly sick way i'm kinda a little excited to see the Air Crash Investigation ep on this :drama: