Polish government dead in plane crash!!!

grunau_baby

grunau_baby

SOH-CM-2026
Just heard about it on the radio and it left me shocked: great part of polish government died this morning when their aircraft crashed near airport Smolensk! My condolenses to the polish people who lost great part of their political elite! This sure is a trauma for the country and it´´s government!
http://edition.cnn.com/

Regards
Alex
 
when i first read your post i thought it must be some kind of prank, but sadly, it's totally true. yahoo news says nearly the same thing. my heart goes out to poland.
 
I was shocked, too. Since I grew up in Poland and my family still lives there I'm feeling with all the Polish people. The only thing making me confuse is that the eyewitnesses from Smolensk say something different than the russian gouvernment and their officials. This morning in the news there were statements form the witnesses living nearby the airfield who said that the aircraft was on some kind of holding pattern making some strange noises (probably the engines or the APU) and then exploding ABOVE the ground whereby there was only little fog. But now... just half an hour ago... they don't show this statements but give some complete other ones from the official side instead. Some commitee should have found out that there was actually very dense fog and that there weren't any problems with the aircraft but because of this difficulties with the weather the pilot couldn't land so he made numerous landingattempts which all failed leeding to this crash in the end whith the aricraft exploding on the ground/in the trees (There was even one statement that said that the president was foolish enough to say that he will land wherever he wants to so that the pilot was forced to risk their lifes even after the captain decided to fly to another airport instead due to safety issues.)

So its somehow strange... the russians make an impression of hiding some facts...
 
Thank you, Gents,

Indeed, it is one of the biggest tragedy in our history. The President, his wife, many importand members of the parliament and the highest commanders of the army (Land Forces, Special Forces, Air Force, Navy) are dead.
Two hours ago I was in front of the President's Palace to put some flowers and to pray. Thousands of citizens are gathering together. There was a terrible silence around...
While the economical world crysis was not as hard here, as in many other countries, I wonder what will happen now...
 
The fact is that Polish Gov. planes shall be changed many years ago. Those are old Tu-154 and Yak-40.
There was a fog over the Smolensk and the pilot tried to land three times, even though the crew was offered to land in Minsk or in Moscow. I don't understand why they decided to land in such difficult conditions. I am also not sure, if there was an ILS on the aerodrome or not.
Another thing are the safety procedures. Why so many imporartand people including the president and six highest army commanders were travelling in one plane ? This is unbelievable. Two years ago there was pretty similar crash, when over ten highest officers of the air force died in the plane crash in bad weather while trying to land...
 
Senior Figures among the 96 Killed -

National leader:
President Lech Kaczynski and wife Maria

Other politicians:
Wladyslaw Stasiak chief of the president's chancellery
Aleksander Szczyglo chief of the National Security Office
Slawomir Skrzypek National Bank of Poland chairman
Jerzy Szmajdzinski deputy speaker of the lower house
Andrzej Kremer Foreign Ministry's undersecretary of state
Stanislaw Komorowski deputy minister of national defence
Przemyslaw Gosiewski Law and Justice party deputy chair

Military chief:
Franciszek Gagor chief of the General Staff

Cultural figures:
Andrzej Przewoznik head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites
Tomasz Merta chief historical conservator

Source: TVP1,



Seems insane to have them all in one aircraft but, what a sad day.
My condolences

:poland:
 
Today my heart bleeds for Poland.

It is a trajady that can happen to any country in this day and time, it is a wonder that this sort of accident has not happened before now, an airliner with the top heads-of-state of a nation on board crashing and killing all. It is a nightmare scenerio and now Poland must live that nightmare. I pray for you good people Lucasz, that you find other exceptional people to lead your nation in this tragic moment. If this sort of event were to happen to the US leadership, no doubt there would be some cheering in many corners, but the cheers would not last long. An event of this kind, whether one agrees with their leaders or not, is devastating to a nation and in a country like the US could mean its very toppling.

May God bless Poland and help her in her time of grief and loss.

Caz
 
This is so sad. It's hard to wrap my mind around. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Poland.
I have a very strong Polish back ground in my family. I just am dumb founded to think of why all those people of importance were on the same plane at the same time.
 
Hi,

Very sad

RIP

The fact is that Polish Gov. planes shall be changed many years ago. Those are old Tu-154 and Yak-40.
Click to expand...
Methink the (age) TU-154 is not directly to blame.
AFAIK the Gvt TU-154 are of the type of refurbished with new (western style) avionics
The TU-154 is a plane from a younger generation than the B737.
With any plane .. landing in very degraded (visibility) wheater on a short runway can lead to tragedy.
The crash occured at the N°4 landing attempt.
Methink also it was spycho pressure on the pilots ...
Of course it's also some precedent similar accidents occured with TU-154 (on go arounds) cause engines problems when TOGA power applied ....
Well ... enquiry will maybe put more lights on .. already one black box recovered.

Two years ago there was pretty similar crash, when over ten highest officers of the air force died in the plane crash in bad weather while trying to land...
Click to expand...

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20080123-0


The latest news:
http://avherald.com/h?article=429ec5fa&opt=0
 
My condolences also the the Poles in the forum. A great tragedy.

I'm sure it will all come out, but the cardinal rule for approaches is no more than 2. If you can't hit it the second time, you go somewhere else.

These things are incredibly draining physically. I would be toast after the second one.
 
Very sad news indeed!

My condolences to the families and friends of all the deceased, as well as to the citizens of Poland.

~May they rest in peace~
 
It looks like the pilots were put under severe pressure.
2008 there has been a similar incident but the pilot decided to divert, against the presidents orders.
Kazynski had to travel to Tbilisi by car and accused the pilots of disobeying orders.
I don't know what consequences this had on their careers.
Unfortunately such things happen more often than the public knows, especially in GA :(
 
My condolences to the people of Poland. A terrible tragedy to suddenly lose so much of the national leadership. I'm sure that others in the Polish government will step up and do their best to keep the country functioning. :unitedstates: :poland:
 
Poland is a great country and (most importantly) has secured it's role in aviation history. I feel horrible about this. We know that Poland is a great and proud country, and they will carry on the best they know how.
 
This is terrible and tragic news! However, the Poles are mighty tough, noble, and resourceful people and I know they will recover from this national tragedy soon enough.

Ken
 
TeaSea said:
My condolences also the the Poles in the forum. A great tragedy.

I'm sure it will all come out, but the cardinal rule for approaches is no more than 2. If you can't hit it the second time, you go somewhere else.

These things are incredibly draining physically. I would be toast after the second one.
Click to expand...

Indeed true! How I yearn that someone had been there to make a good input and break this accident chain!

Ken
 
I wonder what the cause of the crash was. Trying to land in CAT III conditions with CAT I equipment?

Also, it couldn't have been the airplane alone. According to Wikipedia, the Tu-154 got back from an overhaul fairly recently. And the 154 is a fairly safe aircraft. Most crashes involving a Careless are attributed to pilot error.
 
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