By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times
Polish President Lech Kaczynski died Saturday when his presidential plane crashed as it attempted to make a landing amid heavy fog in western Russia, killing all of the 97 passengers aboard.
The President's wife, civilian leaders and several of the country's highest ranking military leaders were en route to an event marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
Officials say air traffic controllers warned the pilots of the 27-year-old Tupolev that they were flying at an extremely accelerated, steep vertical rate of descent and should abort the landing because of thick fog. They do not know at this time if they pilots heard their warning. The flight was reportedly a 1 1/2-hour flight from Warsaw's main airport.
Several of the passengers on board were relatives of Katyn massacre victims and were flying in to attend the anniversary memorial.
Anna Walentynowicz, whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk sparked a workers' strike that spurred the eventual creation of the Solidarity freedom movement, has been counted among the crash victims.
The crash has devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments. Among the military personnel aboard the plane were the army chief of staff, national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.
"This is unbelievable. This tragic, Katyn," Kaczynski's predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, told TVN24 television.
It is "a cursed place, horrible symbolism," he said. "It's hard to believe. You get chills down your spine."
Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said his ministry has informed him that 88 of the passengers, all members of the Polish state delegation, were among the dead.
The deaths are not expected to directly affect the functioning of the Polish government. Poland's president is commander in chief of its armed forces but the position's domestic duties are chiefly symbolic. Most top government ministers were not aboard the plane.
The President's wife, civilian leaders and several of the country's highest ranking military leaders were en route to an event marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
Officials say air traffic controllers warned the pilots of the 27-year-old Tupolev that they were flying at an extremely accelerated, steep vertical rate of descent and should abort the landing because of thick fog. They do not know at this time if they pilots heard their warning. The flight was reportedly a 1 1/2-hour flight from Warsaw's main airport.
Several of the passengers on board were relatives of Katyn massacre victims and were flying in to attend the anniversary memorial.
Anna Walentynowicz, whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk sparked a workers' strike that spurred the eventual creation of the Solidarity freedom movement, has been counted among the crash victims.
The crash has devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments. Among the military personnel aboard the plane were the army chief of staff, national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.
"This is unbelievable. This tragic, Katyn," Kaczynski's predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, told TVN24 television.
It is "a cursed place, horrible symbolism," he said. "It's hard to believe. You get chills down your spine."
Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said his ministry has informed him that 88 of the passengers, all members of the Polish state delegation, were among the dead.
The deaths are not expected to directly affect the functioning of the Polish government. Poland's president is commander in chief of its armed forces but the position's domestic duties are chiefly symbolic. Most top government ministers were not aboard the plane.
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