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maggies_lensIn case you didn't hear: An ageing jet carrying Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and much of the state elite has crashed in thick fog in Russia, killing all 97 people on board and plunging a nation into grief.
The Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-154 hit tree tops in fog as it approached the runway at Smolensk airport in western Russia on Saturday and broke up in flames, regional governor Sergei Antufiev said.
The plane was taking Kaczynski and his wife, the military chief of staff and other top officers, the central bank governor, the deputy foreign minister, members of parliament and other senior officials to a memorial ceremony for thousands of Polish troops massacred by Russian forces in World War II.
'It clipped the tops of the trees, crashed down and broke into pieces,' Antufiev told Russia-24 television news network.
Lieutenant General Alexander Alyoshin, deputy head of Russia's air force, said the pilots repeatedly ignored instructions from air traffic controllers.
Wreckage, including the engines and a large chunk of mud-caked tailfin, was scattered across a forest and parts of it burned for more than an hour. The two black box flight recorders were quickly found, news agencies reported.
As well as killing the 60-year-old head of state, the crash devastated Poland's military leadership.
The 88 passengers included General Franciszek Gagor, chief of Poland's armed forces, and the heads of all the main armed forces, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek, deputy foreign minister Andrzej Kremer, deputy defence minister Stanislaw Jerzy Komorowski, Kaczynski's wife Maria, and scores of MPs, historians and other officials.
What a fucking tragedy. WTF was the pilot thinking, ignoring his tower like that? WTF were the Polish offcials thinking, all going in ONE 'plane like that? Relations between Russia and Poland have ALWAYS been tense, despite the recent (relative to history) wonderful efforts of both countries leaders to have a friendship. It's like the Middle East; even if there ever will be peace, there will always be ppl who stick to the old hatreds, sounds like it's a possibility that this pilot was one of those stuck in the past.
On a more personal note with all this, my dad was childhood through to young adult friends with the president AND his twin brother. In fact there is a book somewhere which lists all 3 as anti-government vandals! My dad was a stauch anti-communist and got up to quite some hi-jinx! Apparently I met them as a baby and sat in their laps etc. Mum and dad are quite upset, onviously, and my birth-nation is in mourning. Russia has declared a week of mourning. I hope and pray this doesn't start up any of the old troubles. Everyone worked so hard to make peace. Let the past stay there.
The Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-154 hit tree tops in fog as it approached the runway at Smolensk airport in western Russia on Saturday and broke up in flames, regional governor Sergei Antufiev said.
The plane was taking Kaczynski and his wife, the military chief of staff and other top officers, the central bank governor, the deputy foreign minister, members of parliament and other senior officials to a memorial ceremony for thousands of Polish troops massacred by Russian forces in World War II.
'It clipped the tops of the trees, crashed down and broke into pieces,' Antufiev told Russia-24 television news network.
Lieutenant General Alexander Alyoshin, deputy head of Russia's air force, said the pilots repeatedly ignored instructions from air traffic controllers.
Wreckage, including the engines and a large chunk of mud-caked tailfin, was scattered across a forest and parts of it burned for more than an hour. The two black box flight recorders were quickly found, news agencies reported.
As well as killing the 60-year-old head of state, the crash devastated Poland's military leadership.
The 88 passengers included General Franciszek Gagor, chief of Poland's armed forces, and the heads of all the main armed forces, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek, deputy foreign minister Andrzej Kremer, deputy defence minister Stanislaw Jerzy Komorowski, Kaczynski's wife Maria, and scores of MPs, historians and other officials.
What a fucking tragedy. WTF was the pilot thinking, ignoring his tower like that? WTF were the Polish offcials thinking, all going in ONE 'plane like that? Relations between Russia and Poland have ALWAYS been tense, despite the recent (relative to history) wonderful efforts of both countries leaders to have a friendship. It's like the Middle East; even if there ever will be peace, there will always be ppl who stick to the old hatreds, sounds like it's a possibility that this pilot was one of those stuck in the past.
On a more personal note with all this, my dad was childhood through to young adult friends with the president AND his twin brother. In fact there is a book somewhere which lists all 3 as anti-government vandals! My dad was a stauch anti-communist and got up to quite some hi-jinx! Apparently I met them as a baby and sat in their laps etc. Mum and dad are quite upset, onviously, and my birth-nation is in mourning. Russia has declared a week of mourning. I hope and pray this doesn't start up any of the old troubles. Everyone worked so hard to make peace. Let the past stay there.
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Date: 2010-04-11 08:35 am (UTC)