Plane carrying Polish President crashes!!

A.V.

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the BBC News 24, crahed on landing on a Russian airport

Spokesman of Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just confirmed, that Tu-154M with Polish president on board crashed near Somolensk. TVN24 (Polish tv station) just announced that there are at least 87 victims.
 

notinlove

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The Governor of Smolensk Oblast said that nobody survived the crash
 

Armand2REP

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I can just see the industrial headlines... Russian built plane kills Poland's first family.
 

bhramos

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RIP.
all the people 132 aboard the plane died,
including the president
 

Armand2REP

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Polish President Lech Kaczynski 'in plane crash'
Wheels of crashed plane near Smolensk
The plane came down after apparently hitting the tops of trees

A plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski has crashed near a Russian airport, officials say.

Russian media reported that 87 people were killed in the crash near Smolensk, and a regional governor was quoted as saying there were no survivors.

Polish officials said Mr Kaczynski was on board along with his wife Maria and several senior government figures.

They were in Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when the Soviets killed thousands of Poles.

The BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says the crash is a catastrophe for the Polish people.

He says Prime Minister Donald Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told.

Plane 'hit trees'

The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT).

Lech Kaczynski, file image
Lech Kaczynski is thought to have been on board with his wife

Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said it had been flying from Moscow to Smolensk, but had no details on the identities of those killed.

Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.

"As it was preparing for landing, the Polish president's aircraft did not make it to the landing strip," he said.

"According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces. There are no survivors in that crash.

"We are clarifying how many people there were in the [Polish] delegation. According to preliminary reports, 85 members of the delegation and the crew."

Russian investigators said there were a total of 132 people on the plane.

Controversial figure

The president was flying in a Tupolev 154, a plane that was designed in the 1960s and capable of carrying more than 100 passengers.

Smolensk map

Our correspondent says there had been calls for Polish leaders to upgrade their planes.

As well as the president and his wife, a number of senior officials were also said to be on the passenger list.

They included the army chief of staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.

Mr Kaczynski has been a controversial figure in Polish politics, advocating a right-wing Catholic agenda.

He has opposed rapid free-market reforms and favoured retaining social welfare programmes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8612825.stm
 

plugwater

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RIP. In terms of one single blow I'm sure it is among the most violent blows to a country in modern times. outside of war.
 

Agantrope

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RIP to the deaths. Polish Prez have died really a tragic incident for them.
 

sandeepdg

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RIP to all those who lost their lives. Other than the Polish President and the First Lady, other important members of the cabinet included the Deputy Foreign Minister, MPs and also the Chief of Staff of the Polish Army.
 

ahmedsid

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May their Souls rest in peace! A truly horrific tragedy! My Prayers with the people and families of Poland affected by this! God Speed
 

GokuInd

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Pilot error eyed in Polish president’s plane crash

(AFP)
10 April 2010, 7:49 PM
MOSCOW - Speculation surged Saturday on the cause of the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski, with attention focusing on why the crew attempted to land despite thick fog.

As the Kremlin ordered a ‘detailed’ investigation into the deadly crash in Smolensk in western Russia, an air force official said the plane’s pilots had repeatedly ignored instructions from Russian air traffic controllers.

‘At a distance of 1.5 kilometres (0.9 miles) the air traffic control group discovered the crew had accelerated its downward descent and begun descending beneath its glide path,’ Lieutenant General Alexander Alyoshin, deputy head of Russia’s air force, said in televised remarks.

‘The head of the group 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,’ Alyoshin said.

‘Nonetheless the crew continued to descend. Unfortunately this ended tragically,’ he added.

Two other planes were due to land at the same airport on Saturday morning, of which one landed successfully, while the other flew to another airport to avoid the heavy fog in Smolensk, Alyoshin said.

Officials have said a total of 97 people were aboard the plane, including Kaczynski and top Polish military commanders who had been heading to Russia to comemmorate a 1940 massacre of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.

All aboard the ageing Soviet-designed Tupolev Tu-154 Polish government jet were killed, officials said.

Eyewitnesses and Smolensk airport officials who had been awaiting Kaczynski’s arrival since early morning told an AFP reporter that his plane had circled several times in the low visibility.

It made three approaches to land before skimming the treetops and crashing sideways on its fourth descent, they said.

Unnamed sources in the Smolensk region government told Russian news agencies that pilot error was suspected as a cause of the crash.

‘The cause of the plane crash was apparently an error by the crew during the approach to landing,’ Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted an unnamed official in Smolensk region as saying.

Authorities have found both the plane’s flight recorders, Russia’s top emergency official said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

‘Both the data and the voice recorders were found at the crash site. The analysis of them, which will shed light on the reasons for the disaster, has already begun,’ Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying.

Such recorders are often called ‘black boxes’ and are used to reconstruct the chain of events that led to a crash.

Meanwhile Russia opened a criminal investigation to determine whether safety violations had led to the crash, as teams of investigators flew to the scene.

Russia’s top investigator Alexander Bastrykin and over 40 senior specialists were headed to the crash site, Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the committee said it had opened an investigation on possible ‘violations of aviation safety rules leading to the deaths of two or more people,’ a crime punishable with up to seven years in prison.

Kaczynski’s jet had been fully repaired and refurbished in December, the head of the factory that made the planes said.

‘Major repairs on Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s Tu-154 plane were carried out in December 2009,’ Alexei Gusev, director of the Aviakor aircraft factory in Russia’s southern city of Samara, was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Earlier Saturday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a ‘detailed’ investigation into the crash.

Russian officials have vowed their probe will proceed in close cooperation with Polish investigators, and the Russian foreign ministry has said it would expedite processing of visas for them to enter the country.
 
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A.V.

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facts about the crash by independent member the following is not my views
copyright of owner post respected

Disaster of Polish Tupolev Tu-154M 101

Tu-154M side number 101 has been specially produced for the Poland on 29 June 1990, delivered to the Poland on July 12 that same year. Aircraft for the entire period of his service was operated by the 36th Special Aviation Regiment operating from the military part of the Okecie Airport. Tu-154M in 2009, underwent a full restructuring coupled with the limited modernization, was equipped with modern navigation systems to allow for landing without visual runway visibility as the ILS (Instrument Landing System).


Tu-154M Landing 101 in Prague, two days before the disaster, source: http://www.planesvideo.cz

Airplane departed at 7:58 with almost hour delay of the planned departure at 7:00 am (this time of departure appears on an official list of advertised passengers) on board were 88 passengers and 8 crew members.

In addition to the Tu-154M 101 other aircraft were planed to land at the destination airport this morning. About 7:15 pm Polish time (9:15 local) landed safely at the airport Polish Yak-40, also from the 36th Regiment. On board were the journalists who accompanied the president during the ceremony Katyn. Later, and before the arrival Polish Tu-154M to the airport approached the Russian Il-76 transport flying from Moscow. On board were members of the Federal Protection Service (Polish equivalent of the BOR's) who had secured a visit to the Polish president. Airplane undertook two failed attempts to land. According to witnesses (crew and passengers of Yak-40) attempted landing have to look very dangerous. After unsuccessful attempts, a plane headed to other airport.

During the intake to the airport (the airport control zone is located within a radius of 50 km) commander of the Tu-154 made contact with the tower at the airport Siewiernyj in Smolensk. It is cvill-military airport (the nature of this is from December 2009, before it was military airport). The airport does not have a modern radio navigational aid that are standard for civil airports and western military airfields like ILS. At the airport, the system was only working in standard SP-50. Communication is carried out in the Russian language, which (according to leading the conversation controller) pilots have had some problems (especially with numbers.) Visibility at the airport would be 400 m (recommended minimum while allowing visibility for landing without precision guidance is 1,000 m). Airport has a runway length of 2,500 mi is adapted to receive large aircraft (airfield was the base of aircraft IL-76).

During a call, the controller warned the crew about the bad weather conditions and advised that the airplane headed to other airport (options were Minsk, Vitebsk and Vnukovo). The commander decided to continue with the landing and decide whether to stop at the required height in this situation. He noted that it has enough fuel to proceed to the airport and then Siewiernyj outward flight to any of the alternative airports. Explicitly stated that the event of interruption of the first approach was to go to an airport and not try another approach. It should be noted that in case such decision is binding on the aircraft commander, not the controller.

For some reason the plane was lower than it should (it is possible that the crew had no awareness of this fact due to poor visibility). Was to be noticed by an inspector who informed the crew but did not receive a response. So far it has not been clarified whether the work at the airport navigational aids, and whether the pilots used them, not excluded is the failure of these systems (transmitters at the airport or receivers in airplane).

During the flight at low altitude aircraft wing caught in the trees and the antenna of one of its facilities. The first contact with the trees occurred at a distance of about 1200 meters from the airport, at a height of about 8 m, the plane was then near the axis of the runway, the plane then continued further cutting of trees. As a result an aircraft wing has been broken off from the plane, plane banked and changed the direction of flight as it moved away from the axis of the runway. The plane stopped after passing about 500 m. The aircraft tail and the second wing were broken off. Hull and the passenger compartment was burned completely. The crash occurred about 8:56 pm Polish time, the board was to be 96 people (passengers, security officers of the BOR and crew). Nobody survived.


Remains of the plane several minutes after crash

More details about the talks with the pilots, traffic control and the course of the last moments of the flight recorders should provide the records are in black boxes.

What draws attention is that the first information that talked about a four-Approach landing, and the circulation over the airport. Some reports say that the plane circling up to 2 hours, this is physically impossible because the crash occurred about an hour after take-off aircraft from the airport in Warsaw.
Some leaks tahat occurred in the media (like BBC) taht passengers had to force a landing at the airport in bad conditions.

I must say that as a person in contact with the military, including military pilots, this situation was unbelievable for me. The actual course of events seems to exclude even the possibility of such a course of events, presumably the passengers were not aware of the situation until the last moment, when the machine began to hit the trees.

Weather forecasts for the airport Siewiernyj day as the disaster:
10:00Z (1pm) Temp 3°C Dew 2°C Humidity 94% QNH 1025 hPa Visibility 4 kilometers Winds east 14.4 km/h / Mist
07:00Z (10am) Temp 1°C Dew 1°C Humidity 98% QNH 1026 hPa Visibility 0.5 kilometers Winds SE 10.8 km/h / Heavy Fog
04:00Z (7am) Temp 0°C Dew -1°C Humidity 89% QNH 1025 hPa Visibility 4 kilometers Winds ESE 7.2 km/h / Mist
01:00Z (4am) Temp 3°C Dew -0°C Humidity 72% QNH 1025 hPa Visibility 10 kilometers Winds SE 7.2 km/h /
22:00Z (1am) Temp 6°C Dew -0°C Humidity 52% QNH 1025 hPa Visibility 10 kilometers Winds SE 7.2 km/h
 
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A.V.

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Спасибо, Россия!!! Dziękujemy Ci, Rosjo! Thank You, Russia! Danke, Russland!

Thank you, Russians!

We the people of Poland, which for the past seventy years have failed to accept the loss of our favorite sons murdered In the Katyn forest, thank the people of the Russian Federation and appeal for reconciliation.

We are touched by the help and solidarity we have received from Russia, and from its average inhabitants, during these tragic days. In the plane crash in Smolensk, near Katyn, we lost not only the head of our country, but once again as we did seventy years ago, we lost many gifted members of the elite circles of an independent Poland.

The crime committed against Polish officers In 1940 divided our nation for generations. Now we stand stunned by the blood of present day heroes sinking into the same soil. Both events are connected in terms of geography and pain, but in as much as the first was the result of Stalinist terror that also touched the Russian people themselves, the second was a horrible accident for which we cannot blame the host country.

Experiencing today’s tragedy we see that we are not alone as was the case seventy years ago. The legal successors to the Soviet Union, the Russian government and the Russian people are with us expressing sympathy and making easily understandable gestures of help. We are particularly moved by these words and actions because they negate the murder committed in history – they manifest a Russia, that we always wished for its citizens.

We are citizens of the Republic of Poland, but we are also the spiritual children of the Polish Pope John Paul II. This heritage obligates us to speak out and not leave these expressions of solidarity unrecognized.

For this reason we appeal to the Russian nation: let the new blood spilled near Katyn join us, let it help us reconcile with each other. Let it be a sign of a new beginning in Polish-Russian relations, relations long strained by mistrust, lies and prejudices. Let the Poles and Russians set an example for the world of how to rise above a terrible loss. We are certain that we share the same conviction; evil will not win, good will triumph over evil!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the goodness we are experiencing from you during these difficult days. We are hopeful that together we can build more goodness in the future – for Poland, for Russia for Europe and the world.




 
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GokuInd

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Спасибо, Россия!!! Dziękujemy Ci, Rosjo! Thank You, Russia! Danke, Russland!

Thank you, Russians!

We the people of Poland, which for the past seventy years have failed to accept the loss of our favorite sons murdered In the Katyn forest, thank the people of the Russian Federation and appeal for reconciliation.

We are touched by the help and solidarity we have received from Russia, and from its average inhabitants, during these tragic days. In the plane crash in Smolensk, near Katyn, we lost not only the head of our country, but once again as we did seventy years ago, we lost many gifted members of the elite circles of an independent Poland.

The crime committed against Polish officers In 1940 divided our nation for generations. Now we stand stunned by the blood of present day heroes sinking into the same soil. Both events are connected in terms of geography and pain, but in as much as the first was the result of Stalinist terror that also touched the Russian people themselves, the second was a horrible accident for which we cannot blame the host country.

Experiencing today’s tragedy we see that we are not alone as was the case seventy years ago. The legal successors to the Soviet Union, the Russian government and the Russian people are with us expressing sympathy and making easily understandable gestures of help. We are particularly moved by these words and actions because they negate the murder committed in history – they manifest a Russia, that we always wished for its citizens.

We are citizens of the Republic of Poland, but we are also the spiritual children of the Polish Pope John Paul II. This heritage obligates us to speak out and not leave these expressions of solidarity unrecognized.

For this reason we appeal to the Russian nation: let the new blood spilled near Katyn join us, let it help us reconcile with each other. Let it be a sign of a new beginning in Polish-Russian relations, relations long strained by mistrust, lies and prejudices. Let the Poles and Russians set an example for the world of how to rise above a terrible loss. We are certain that we share the same conviction; evil will not win, good will triumph over evil!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the goodness we are experiencing from you during these difficult days. We are hopeful that together we can build more goodness in the future – for Poland, for Russia for Europe and the world.


]
@AV: totally O-T (and please don't mind my stupid questions):

Poles and Russians do have a common ethnic background right? Are their respective languages also similar like let's say German vis-à-vis Dutch or/and Yiddish?
 
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