Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash

Image Taken From www.dawn.com

Polish and Russian officials said no-one survived after the plane where the polish president is on crash into trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog conditions. According to the Russian media, the pilots ignored advice from air traffic control to divert to another airport. Russian officials said 97 people were killed in the crash, including eight crew.

The Polish delegation was flying in from Warsaw to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces during WWII. One of the supposed 90 people scheduled to fly in the delegation to the Katyn commemoration missed the tragic flight.

Mr Putin visited the crash site, after saying he would personally oversee the investigation into the crash. The president was flying in a Tupolev 154, a Soviet-designed plane that was more than 20 years old.[BBC]

PRESIDENT LECH KACZYNSKI

-Born in Warsaw in 1949

-Arrested under martial law in 1981

-Elected Warsaw Mayor in 2002

-Elected president in October 2005

You can view the following links for more information of the Lech Kaczynski Plane Crash:

- Obituary of Lech Kaczynski

- Plane Crash Pictures 

- Reactions to Plane Crash
- About the plane Tupolev-154

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

SENIOR FIGURES KILLED 

President Lech Kaczynski and wife Maria
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 defense

Przemyslaw Gosiewski Law and Justice party deputy chair
Franciszek Gagor chief of the General Staff (Military)

Some Leading Historians:
Andrzej Przewoznik head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites;  

Tomasz Merta chief historical conservator 

Source: TVP1, Warsaw