Polish president feared dead in Russian plane crash

[Mayareira]

(Reuters) - Polish president Lech Kaczynski was feared dead after his plane crashed on approach to a Russian airport on Saturday, a Polish government official at the airport told Reuters.

World

Russian news agencies reported at least 87 people died in the crash near Smolensk airport in western Russia, citing the Russian Emergencies Ministry. They reported 132 people were aboard the Tupolev Tu-154.

Polish state news agency PAP said there were no survivors.

The Polish government official in Smolensk said there was no information about survivors. The crash occurred about 1.5 km (a mile) from Smolensk airport in foggy conditions.

The official said the head of the Polish army and the head of the presidential administration were also on board the plane, along with the president's wife and families of other senior officials.

"The plane caught fire after the crash. Teams began attempting to pull out passengers from the badly damaged airplane," said a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman in Warsaw.

(Additional reporting by Robin Paxton and Maria Kiselyova in Moscow and Chris Borowski in Warsaw; writing by Robin Paxton; editing by Andrew Roche)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6390NQ20100410

What a tragedy. His wife and other senior officers feared dead as wel.

[Niiro]

Bet the pilot was Polish.

[Meph]

they are now reporting no survivors

[miokomioko]

That's pretty tragic. So... Anarchy in the PL?

[Gokulo]

That's pretty tragic. So... Anarchy in the PL?

Marshal of the Sejm temporarily takes over the president in situations like that.

[Pikarya]

Russian Plane

[Mayareira]

They are known as flying coffins so...yeah

[Plow]

I fully expect some kind of smear campaign from the media.

[Sylvrdragon]

How many polacks (yes, that's how you spell it) does it take to fly an airplane?

Spoiler: show

We don't know yet.

[Chen]

sucks bet the russians are to blame!

[fren.]

UPDATED list of dead

Lech Kaczyński, President
Maria Kaczyńska, First Lady

Ryszard Kaczorowski, last President-in-exile

Krzysztof Putra, vice-Marshal of the Sejm (speaker of Parliament)
Krystyna Bochenek, vice-Marshal of the Sejm

Jerzy Szmajdziński, former Minister of Defence and intended Presidential Candidate for this year's election
Władysław Stasiak, chief of the President's office
Jacek Sasin, his deputy

Aleksander Szczygło, chief of National Security Bureau
Paweł Wypych, Secretary of State in President's office (note to Amerigoons: less important than it sounds)
Mariusz Handzlik, his deputy

Andrzej Kremer, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs
gen. Franciszek Gągor, Chief of Staff
Jerzy Bar, ambassador to Russia

Andrzej Przewoźnik, major historian

Maciej Płażyński, MP, former Marshal of the Sejm
Przemysław Gosiewski, MP, former minister
Zbigniew Wassermann, MP, former minister
Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, MP, former Minister of Social Policy
Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz, MP, former chief of President's Office
Aleksandra Natalii-Świat, MP, vice-president of Law and Justice party
Leszek Deptuła, MP
Grażyna Gęsicka, MP
Arkadiusz Rybicki, MP
Stanisław Zając, MP
Edward Wojtas, MP
Wiesław Woda, MP
Sebastian Karpiniuk, MP
Grzegorz Dolniak, MP

Janusz Kochanowski, Ombudsman

Sławomir Skrzypek, President of the Polish National Bank

Janusz Kurtyka, President of the Institute of National Remembrance (state institution for historical research)

bishop Tadeusz Płoski

and the chiefs of every arm of the Armed Forces.

That's fucked. Not sure why they were all on the same plane.

[Correction]

So what now, do they hand control of the country back over to Germany or something?

[Restrat]

the president is only in charge of the army and head of state.
the actually guy in charge is the Prime Minister, who is the president's identical twin.

[Klaatu]

Air Force... NONE!

[isladar]

So what now, do they hand control of the country back over to Germany or something?

Oh god, I lol'd.

[Pikarya]

I guess the Czech Republic is next in line to losing their upper government in a Russian plane. You let the US build missile defense on your soil, we plot your death.

http://i43.tinypic.com/ezh5hi.jpg

SNEAKY FUCKING RUSSIANS.

[Korietsu]

How the fuck did that happen? That's a clusterfuck of a mess if I've seen one.

[BadKarma]

sucks bet the russians are to blame!

Quiet you fuckin' idiot. At least make a joke, not something retarded.

[Metta]

Quiet you fuckin' idiot. At least make a joke, not something retarded.

What... that was a joke.

[Sho]

How ya'll could joke about death of most of the upper echelon of a country is beyond me, but is a reminder that this is BG srs.

Media shit storm on hidden Russian plots incoming.