Polish President and top brass killed in aircrash in Russia

Vinay Shukla
Moscow, Apr 10 (PTI) Poland's President Lech Kaczynski
and some of the country's top military and civil leaders were
killed along with all 96 people onboard the Presidential plane
that crashed in dense fog, trying to land against advice by
air controllers, in western Russia on Saturday.
"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 Gen Franciszek
Gagor and National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek.
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 quoted to 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 eight members
of the crew, according to the list of passengers.
"Going by this we are putting the toll at 96 as there
were no survivors," she said.
"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.
The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin led world leaders in expressing grief over the
tragedy and promised that a comprehensive probe would be
carried out.
Putin himself would head the crash probe, which would
also include Polish officials, Medvedev said.
But, in Poland, the death of the almost the entire top
brass left the nation in a big shock and created a power
vacuum. A week of national mourning was announced. (MORE) PTI