Poland mourns President Lech Kaczynski after jet crash
Poland has been plunged into mourning by the deaths of President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of political and military leaders in a plane crash.
Full Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8613778.stm
The jet crashed as it attempted to land at Smolensk air base in Russia in thick fog, killing all 97 people on board.
Russian officials have said the pilots ignored warnings from air traffic control to divert to another airport.
A week of mourning has been called in Poland where a two-minute silence will be held at noon (1000 GMT) on Sunday.
Russia has also declared Monday a day of mourning for the victims, whose remains have been flown to morgues in Moscow.
Relatives of the dead have begun arriving in the Russian capital, officials there said.
‘Tragic ending’
Thousands of people gathered at the presidential palace in Warsaw on Saturday to lay flowers and light candles.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the crash was the most tragic event of the country’s post-World War II history.
The Polish delegation was flying in from Warsaw to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces during WWII.
The Tupolev 154 came in to land at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT) on Saturday morning.
Witnesses said the plane approached Smolesnk air base with its left wing pointing to the ground. It clipped trees as it came down and crashed, scattering debris across a forested area.
The deputy head of Russia’s air force said the pilots ignored repeated requests from air traffic controllers to divert the flight to another airport to avoid the heavy fog around Smolensk.
About 1.5km (0.9 miles) from the air base, air traffic controllers noticed the jet was below the scheduled gliding path, said Lt Gen Alexander Alyoshin.
Ground control “ordered the crew to return to horizontal flight, and when the crew did not fulfil the instruction, ordered them several times to land at another airport,” he added.
“Nonetheless the crew continued to descend. Unfortunately this ended tragically.”
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he would personally oversee the investigation into the crash.
“Everything must be done to establish the reasons for this tragedy in the shortest possible time,” he said as he visited the crash site.
Mr Putin was joined by the late president’s identical twin brother, himself a former prime minister, and Mr Tusk to lay wreaths at the plane’s wreckage.
‘Beyond belief’
All bodies were recovered and were being taken to Moscow by helicopter for identification.
Russia’s Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said both of the plane’s flight information recorders had been found and were being examined.
As well as the president and his wife, Maria, a number of senior officials were on the passenger list.
They included the army chief of staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer and members of parliament.
“We are completely devastated and shocked,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski told the BBC.
“People have just been to church, to a mass, people are crying.”
He added: “We could not have conceived a more horrible, poignant, tragic occurrence than our president going to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the murder of 20,000 Polish officers at Katyn, himself dying with his wife, with the army commander, with parliamentarians, with the head of the national bank. It’s just beyond belief.”
Prime Minister Tusk said the business of government would continue.
The parliamentary speaker, Bronislaw Komorowski, has now become the acting president.
“Today in the face of such a drama our nation stays united,” he said in a televised address.
“There is no division into left and right, differences of views don’t matter. We are together in the face of this tragedy.”
He said he would, according to Poland’s constitution, set the date for a presidential election after consulting with political parties.
The election must be held by late June, instead of the previously scheduled date of October.
Mr Komorowski is the presidential candidate for Mr Tusk’s ruling pro-euro and pro-free market Civic Platform party.
Previous scares
The president’s Tupolev 154 was a Soviet-designed plane that was more than 20 years old.
The BBC’s Adam Easton in Warsaw says there had been calls for Polish leaders to upgrade their planes.
Mr Kaczynski himself had suffered scares while using the plane in late 2008, when problems with the aircraft’s steering mechanism delayed his departure from Mongolia.
“Any flight brings with it a certain risk, but a very serious risk attaches to the responsibilities of a president, because it is necessary to fly constantly,” he was quoted as saying at the time.
But the head of Russia’s Aviakor aviation maintenance company told Russian TV the plane was airworthy, after his plant fully overhauled it in December.
World leaders including Mr Putin, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered their condolences to Poland.
Mr Kaczynski, who as president had fewer powers than the prime minister but had a significant say in foreign policy, was a controversial figure in Polish politics.
He had advocated a right-wing Catholic agenda, opposed rapid free-market reforms and favoured retaining social welfare programmes.
Poland Feels Shock at the Size of Its Loss
Full Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/europe/11warsaw.html WARSAW — On a chilly April night, thousands of Poles wandered the historic old town of the capital city, their way lighted by a multitude of flickering flames, candles in the red and white colors of the Polish flag burning at their feet. The people were of all ages and political persuasions, families and groups of boys and girls in scouting uniforms. If there were no answers to be found Saturday night as to why the country had been robbed of many of its brightest minds and most dedicated public servants, Poles could at least find reassurance in the presence of so many others in the same searching state of shock. Pawel Skoczylas, 26, a clerk, said that he had come to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Pilsudski Square to mourn those killed “because I’m a patriot, because I’m a Catholic, because I’m a citizen of Poland, because I’m just a man, a person.” His voice trembled as he spoke. Like many of those out in the streets, he said he had difficulty talking about something he had not yet fully grasped. A line of candles ran from the tomb to the tall, white cross marking the spot where Pope John Paul II had given his first sermon in his native land as pontiff. Mourners formed a circle around the cross and sang “Black Madonna,” a hymn about the religious icon and national symbol. “I felt I had to be here,” said Tomasz Kielar, 40, a civil servant. He said he knew Wladyslaw Stasiak, head of the president’s chancellery, who was one of those killed in the crash of a plane taking Polish officials to Russia to commemorate the Katyn massacre. “Katyn was a page in history in the 20th century,” he said. “Now it’s going to be a page in history in the 21st century.” Almost everyone interviewed knew someone who died that morning in the thick fog of western Russia, not only the famous politicians and commanding generals, but also the Russian-Polish interpreter, the president’s doctor, the eight members of the presidential security detail. “We cannot forget that there were other people on board, intelligent, educated people,” said Aleksandra Jarosz, 17. The military chaplain killed in the crash, Bishop Tadeusz Ploski, had performed her sister’s marriage last year. In life, President Lech Kaczynski was a polarizing figure in a political environment plagued by party disputes, but in death those differences were set aside. “Surely the president was a man whose decisions were not always accepted by all of the Polish people, but he was our president,” Ms. Jarosz said. Indeed, in the hours after the accident, there was striking unity across the political spectrum. “Faced with our national tragedy we stand united,” the acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, said in a televised address to the nation. “There are no divisions into left and right. World views, religious denominations are of no importance. We are united in our grief and care for our nation.” Polish public television broadcast a black-and-white montage of photographs of the dead, interspersed with video of workers using hoses to put out the fire at the scene of the accident, the national anthem playing somberly in the background. Special editions of newspapers were handed out free to thousands of passers-by. “Poland in Mourning,” declared Gazeta Wyborcza. At the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, a cluster of people formed around a man in turn playing the guitar, singing and praying aloud. Flowers were suspended in the iron gate in front of the building, along with a small photograph of Tomasz Merta, under secretary at the ministry. Before his death, Mr. Merta was in charge of the nation’s monuments. It would have been his task to oversee the creation of a permanent memorial to those who perished, had he not been among them.
