The government airliner crashed in Smolensk
10.04.2010
The Polish government airliner TU-154 crashed on Saturday at the “Severny” military airport near Smolensk, killing the country’s president
Lech Kaczynski along with 95 others, including many dignitaries on their way to ceremonies at Katyn forest, not far from Smolensk
where Polish officers were executed in 1940.
Poland (12) -- Analyses -- 2010
More about the tragedy
14.04.2010
The condition of both airplain recorders is satisfactory and the special commission investigating the crash that is headed by Vladimir Putin, the
Russian prime minister, used them.
Polish pilots were warned not
to land because of adverse weather conditions, Sergei Ivanov, Russia’s deputy prime minister, said on Monday.
Igor Levitin, the Russian transport minister, said the pilot had taken the
decision to land “independently” despite visibility of only 400 m when it should have been 1000 m.
Russian and Polish authorities were also trying to identify the dead. So far only Kaczynski has been brought back to Poland; he is lying in the chapel of Warsaw’s
presidential palace, where thousands continue to gather outside to pay their respects.
A state funeral of Kaczynski and his wife may be held on Sunday, 18.04.2010.
Bulgarian