This must be absolutely devastating to the Polish people, especially since President Kaczynski was traveling to commemorate the Katyn Forrest Massacre. Now the Polish people must endure a double tragedy on this date. God help them.
New York Times: WARSAW — A plane carrying the Polish president and dozens of the country’s top political and military leaders to the site of the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in World War II crashed in western Russia on Saturday, killing everyone on board.
President Lech Kaczynski’s plane tried to land in a thick fog, missing the runway and snagging treetops about half a mile from the airport in Smolensk, scattering chunks of flaming fuselage across a bare forest.
The crash came as a stunning blow to Poland, wiping out a large portion of the country’s leadership in one fiery explosion. It came at the moment that Russia and Poland were beginning to come to terms with the killing of more than 20,000 members of Poland’s elite officer corps in the same place 70 years ago. [More]
Right now it seems there is some conflict about the cause. Legal Insurrection points to a weather related incident and Theblogprof points to pilot error (with KGB undertones). Let’s hope for the weather cause, the other option is just too messy to consider.
CNN video from Freedoms’s Lighthouse
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The New York Times
Via: Legal Insurrection
Via: The Blog Prof