Polish President's Plane Crashes - 87 Dead

[dlevere]

Polish President's Plane Crashes - 87 Dead

By Yosef 52Sat Apr 10, 2010 at 01:09:42 AM PDTReuters has reported this only 10 minutes agoolish President Lech Kaczynski was aboard. Eighty-seven people died when a plane flying from Warsaw crashed near its intended destination in the Russian city of Smolensk, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, citing the Russian Emergencies Ministry.The plane was headed to Smolensk, about half way between Poland and Moscow. There was no immediate word on whether President Kaczyski was dead. There is also no information as of yet on the cause of the crash.I will update as new info comes in.UPDATE: The BBC reports here that President Kaczynski and his wife were apparently both killed, along with several other high ranking officials.UPDATE: Here is the report from Polish Radio.The President was headed to Russia for a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre of 1940, when Stalin's secret police murdered thousands of Polish officers.

 

[tymon88]

I am Polish myself and I still cannot believe that, cried a copuple of times already. One of the people that died was working for my father and he even was visiting our house(he was working as a bodyguard in BOR - agency that works for the gov.). The thing is it wasnt only a President and a couple of ministers that died. There were historians, politicians from every party:social democrats,liberals , conservatives all of them were highly educated and opposed communism in the past. There were also represantives of the families whos close ones were massacred in Katyn 70 years ago. It really is not a typical plane crash. Political Elite was visiting Katyn to remember intelectual elite of Poland who were killed 70 years ago(almost 22000 people). I hope this post helps people from USA and othe countries understand that situation.

 

[e-ahmet.823]

My condolences to all Polish people.

 

[lyonesse]

my deepest condolences - just got home and read the news, horrifying and a real tragedy

 

[boomzilla]

My deepest condolences to my Polish brothers and sisters. My thoughts are with you during this time of crisis and loss.

 

[darksavior]

My deepest sympathies to everyone. My thoughts are with you during this time.

 

[KasiaDiamondDove]

I light a candle. My condolences to all Poles.

 

[Corylea.723]

My heart is filled with sorrow at your loss. My condolences to all Polish people.

 

[TC_Coyote]

My condolences to the Polish people, and to the family and friends of those killed.

The thing is it wasnt only a President and a couple of ministers that died. There were historians, politicians from every party:social democrats,liberals , conservatives all of them were highly educated and opposed communism in the past. There were also represantives of the families whos close ones were massacred in Katyn 70 years ago. It really is not a typical plane crash. Political Elite was visiting Katyn to remember intelectual elite of Poland who were killed 70 years ago(almost 22000 people).

New York Times carried this pair of quotes today:

“It is a damned place,” former President Aleksander Kwasniewski told TVN24. “It sends shivers down my spine. First the flower of the Second Polish Republic is murdered in the forests around Smolensk, now the intellectual elite of the Third Polish Republic dies in this tragic plane crash when approaching Smolensk airport. “This is a wound which will be very difficult to heal,” he said. ...Former President Lech Walesa, who presided over Poland’s transition from Communism, called the crash “the second disaster after Katyn.” “They wanted to cut off our head there, and here the flower of our nation has also perished,” he said.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/europe/11poland.html?ref=global-home

 

[cassandra31eee]

I am Polish myself and I still cannot believe that, cried a copuple of times already. One of the people that died was working for my father and he even was visiting our house(he was working as a bodyguard in BOR - agency that works for the gov.). The thing is it wasnt only a President and a couple of ministers that died. There were historians, politicians from every party:social democrats,liberals , conservatives all of them were highly educated and opposed communism in the past. There were also represantives of the families whos close ones were massacred in Katyn 70 years ago. It really is not a typical plane crash. Political Elite was visiting Katyn to remember intelectual elite of Poland who were killed 70 years ago(almost 22000 people). I hope this post helps people from USA and othe countries understand that situation.

These news were already tragic, of course, when lives lost. But this is most sad. I know about the Katyn case, and now this plane crash made it a double tragic memory. I have no words in such situations. May the wounds be healed.

 

[morrighan]

My condolences to the people of Poland. This is an unimaginable loss for everyone. You have my heartfelt sympathy.

 

[lovely_psycho]

I really can't find any words to express how shocked I am by this news. Truly a tragedy, for the families, for a nation and for history itself. I can't even begin to imagine what this must be like to live through as a nation.Tymon88 - thank you for sharing your perspective.

 

[petra_silie]

I'm really shocked and deeply saddened about these tragic news. When I saw it the first time on the television I couldn't believe it. It must hurt a lot that the Katyn massacre is once again a cause for grief and dolefulness though the purpose of this journey was peace.My deepest condolences to the entire Polish nation.

 

[Daerdin.435]

Today President's body arrived at Presidential Palace in Warsaw, hundreds of thousands of people were standing on the streets to see the hearse go by. That was something I have never seen before...Altogether there were 96 casualties, only a dozen or so can be recognised by their appearance, the rest will have to be identified by their family members or DNA tests...Why...

 

[morrighan]

Today President's body arrived at Presidential Palace in Warsaw, hundreds of thousands of people were standing on the streets to see the hearse go by. That was something I have never seen before...Altogether there were 96 casualties, only a dozen or so can be recognised by their appearance, the rest will have to be identified by their family members or DNA tests...Why...

There is no answer to the question that you ask. I can only say that the people of Poland are a living, breathing model for how a society can stand together and be true to its highest principles at the moment when it matters most.

 

[LordFess]

I am an American who is deeply saddened by the unbelievable and tragic loss the wonderful people of Poland have suffered this past week. I have been praying for thepeople of Poland everyday since I heard this awful news. May God protect you all and give you all the strength and hope that only comes from Him during this tragic time.God bless our friends, the nation of Poland.... Amen

 

[stargelman]

While I did not know him personally, members of my family had some dealings with vice foreign secretary Kremer who also died in the crash, back at the time when he was consul in Hamburg. I can only imagine what kind of feelings this terrible accident at such a history-ladden place as Katyn produces in our Polish neighbours (I'm from Germany). I can only hope that at least some small good comes from it, concerning the Polish-Russian relation. I read that the Russians are now finally starting to look at their past and are starting to talk about what happened back in one of the Soviet's darkest hours, and that's at least some good I guess.My sincere condolences to all of you from Poland. My thoughts are with you.

 

[TC_Coyote]

New York Times carried this item today: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/opinion/13iht-edcohen.html?ref=opinion

President Lech Kaczynski is dead. Slawomir Skrzypek, the president of the National Bank, is dead. An explosion in the fog of the forest took them and 94 others on the way to Katyn. But Poland’s democracy has scarcely skipped a beat. The leader of the lower house of Parliament has become acting president pending an election. The first deputy president of the National Bank has assumed the duties of the late president. Poland, oft dismembered, even wiped from the map, is calm and at peace....It is too early to say where Warsaw-Moscow relations are headed but not too early to say that 96 lost souls would be dishonored if Polish and Russian leaders do not make of this tragedy a solemn bond. As Tusk told Putin, “A word of truth can mobilize two peoples looking for the road to reconciliation. Are we capable of transforming a lie into reconciliation? We must believe we can.”Poland should shame every nation that believes peace and reconciliation are impossible, every state that believes the sacrifice of new generations is needed to avenge the grievances of history. The thing about competitive victimhood, a favorite Middle Eastern pastime, is that it condemns the children of today to join the long list of the dead.For scarcely any nation has suffered since 1939 as Poland, carved up by the Hitler-Stalin nonaggression pact, transformed by the Nazis into the epicenter of their program to annihilate European Jewry, land of Auschwitz and Majdanek, killing field for millions of Christian Poles and millions of Polish Jews, brave home to the Warsaw Uprising, Soviet pawn, lonely Solidarity-led leader of post-Yalta Europe’s fight for freedom, a place where, as one of its great poets, Wislawa Szymborska, wrote, “History counts its skeletons in round numbers” — 20,000 of them at Katyn.It is this Poland that is now at peace with its neighbors and stable. It is this Poland that has joined Germany in the European Union. It is this Poland that has just seen the very symbols of its tumultuous history (including the Gdansk dock worker Anna Walentynowicz and former president-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski) go down in a Soviet-made jet and responded with dignity, according to the rule of law.So do not tell me that cruel history cannot be overcome. Do not tell me that Israelis and Palestinians can never make peace. Do not tell me that the people in the streets of Bangkok and Bishkek and Tehran dream in vain of freedom and democracy. Do not tell me that lies can stand forever.Ask the Poles. They know.

 

[Corylea.723]

New York Times carried this item today: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/opinion/13iht-edcohen.html?ref=opinion

What a wonderful tribute to the spirit of the Polish people! Thanks for sharing that.

 

[TC_Coyote]

New York Times carried this item today: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/opinion/13iht-edcohen.html?ref=opinion

What a wonderful tribute to the spirit of the Polish people! Thanks for sharing that.

Like I've said, I'm a news addict NY Times isn't particularly my favorite news source... But every so often, such as with that editorial, they do manage to get things very right.