Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia

Guys - pilots errors and landing in mist - you're over exaggerating, they said in the news that the plane was circling around that old Russian airport for sometime before trying to land to loose all it's fuel, so when they were landing they knew something is wrong with the plane hence dropping the fuel.

Was it same plane that (relatively recently) failed in Mongolia during president visit?

It is imposible on this plane who was flying at very low altitude....and no one survived....just think!!!!!!!!!!it is no hard to understand that...remember last crash plane where a lot of people surviving....Don't just belive all that crap from tv...all thise news is to manipulate inocent people and make them belive it was an accident....

I've got no idea.. there's a number of Tu planes used by polish gov and most or all of them are from the late 60's. They had failed on a number of occasions.

Russian "Zvezda" TV channel shown some video fragments from crash site. Plane looks like torn into pieces, there was little chances to survive. They hit trees just in hundreds of meters from runway.

Yes, it was the same. And it had problems in Haiti as well.

The Poles will manage; they always have and they always will.

My prayers are with the deceased, their families and the Polish people.

deepest condolences to poland 88 tradgic deaths

Every developed country has a contingency plan. Even though the sudden death of a serving president creates turmoil, there are procedures to ensure continuity.

Why is there a Google ad on this page????

My condolences to the Polish people!

How can there be a fair investigation when bloody Putin is in charge of the commission overseeing it.

hxtp://wwx.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08putin.html?ref=europe

Only 3 days ago ...

Interesting is why didn't the Polish president attend to the ceremony then ? Why did he preffer to attend to a different ceremony today, WITHOUT mr. Putin ?

I myself don't believe in coincidences, nor russians ;)

Hey... i was looking at the tv and noticed a huge debris field at the crash site.

Now go look at the photos of the Pentagon where an alleged jetliner crashed into it, and there was nothing to be seen.

Just for the conspiracy minded among us....

Weather reports at 08:00 CET indicated a temperature at Smolensk of 1°C, Dew Point:1°C, wind from 140 degrees at 6 knots, Pressure: 1026 hPa, heavy fog.

The weather right now is still hard IFR

Flight Rule: IFR ()
Wind Speed: 7.8 kts.
Wind Dir: 90° (East)
Ceiling: 210 m

Yes, the Russians have killed the Polish president. However they will (successfully) blame Chechen separatists for the crash. Putin, the Great Murderer, is leading the "investigation" into the cause of the crash. I pity Mother Russia and her citizens while yet another despot murders and maims at will. Death to Putin and the rest of the criminals behind this outrageous "accident".

David L Bonei

i have all respect for victims, no matter their nationality. Just, those victims have nothing from my condolences. Their souls seek for justice and Russian police must found out who is responsible

I don't believe it! I just finished writing my condonlences to the Polish ppl and came with the usual besides after my initials that I wondered how long it would take before the first conspiracies would arrive. A few minutes. Wow, not even I expected it to be so fast :S

>^..^<

M-G (are we never going to hear the end of it?)

It's a question of pressure to perform. What would have happened had that pilot diverted? It will be interesting to see what the Polish airforce policy on this is.

Isn't it pssbl that it was just another airplane crash as they happen frequently? That the only thing that differs this one from all the others is that the Polish president, the head of the Polish Bank and the Chief of the Polish Army was in there? Or is it just a favourite pastime to fantasize that it might be different than it looks?

>^..^<

M-G (isn't much of a conspiracy-theorist but found them in generally quite easy to rebuke anyway)

Especially considering the conditions that they tried to land in. I'd be browsing through Seanus's conspiracy sites if the plane spontaneously exploded in midair on a cloudless day. But crashing after the fourth attempt at landing in fog at an airport with no ILS... It's time to start exploring why the decision was made to land there and what safeguards can be put into place so that it never happens again.

So apparently in 2008, Kaczynski tried to land in Tblisi during the Russian invasion. The captain refused to land due to the security situation, and diverted to Azerbaijan. He is no longer flying for the air force and was the target of prosecution.

The landing that was attempted was illegal, that much is sure. There were 3 go arounds prior to the crash, we know that too. ATC advised diverting to Minsk or Moscow according to the Russians. It will be interesting to hear what the CVR has to say. Unfortunately, it sounds like the crew was under immense pressure (direct or indirect) to put the plane on the ground.

Sad tragedy.

Apparently an IL-76 based in Smolensk attempted two approaches and diverted to Moscow. There is also no approach lighting at the airport.

What I want to know is what was The POLISH PRESIDENT doing on a plane that was soo accident prone.

It's not an accident prone plane.

Anyway, I'm sure the report will come out, and we'll get a "dead pilot made error" explanation, instead of actually getting to the root cause which would be Polish AF policy. My guess. We'll see in a couple of months once the report is released.

Before we start accusing the commies, the Jews, the Russians, the Madhatter conspiracy league, th IMF, the EU, NATO, the US and the Kyrgisians, let's just wait what the black box of the plane reveals. After that we can draw conclusions.

>^..^<

M-G (pastime)

I my G!!! are you that not smart to say that? go read more info before say something like that...

The Polish President came from Poland on his own plane to Russia and they try to land 4 times, that is what happened. what plane should Russian provide to whom???

go read some more info! wow!

I mean I see that you can write, but can you read?

...which is?

Apparently not staying legal.

apparently the attempt to land was illegal according to some sources.

And punishing flight crew for erring on the side of safety. That's probably the biggest issue there. Can you imagine what kind of pressure the crew must have been under to put the plane down? That situation shouldn't have ever come up.

The Polish AF has a policy of staying illegal? That is the root cause? Are you OK?

Check out the flight in 2008 to Tblisi. There is obviously a problem with safety vs. completing the mission. In this case, completing the mission was more important. They attempted 4 (!) approaches when the weather was below minimums.

So, what would you call that? It seems to me that there was a culture of erring on the side of completing the mission vs. safety, what do you think?

I'm quite ok, thanks.