Tragic Irony: Polish President & Entourage Killed on Way to Commemoration of Soviet Massacre of Polish Elite

From the Warsaw Voice:

BREAKING NEWS – Polish President Killed in Plane Crash, April 10, 2010

A Tu-154 plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria along with 86 others has crashed while coming in to land near a Russian airport, on 10 April 2010.

The governor of the Smolensk region, where the crash took place at 10:56 Moscow time (0756 CET), said there were no survivors.

President Kaczynski was on board along with several senior government figures and many of Poland's political and military elite.

They were on their way to Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the 1940 Katyn massacre.

The list of distinguished guests accompanying the Polish president on the plane includes head of the Institute of National Remembrance Jacek Kurtyka, head of the Polish National Bank Slawomir Skrzypek, Poland’s last president in exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, former defence minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, head of the Presidential Chancellery Wladyslaw Stasiak, presidential spokesman Pawel Wypych, Secretary of State Mariusz Handzlik, head of the Law and Justice party in parliament Przemyslaw Gosiewski, MP Zbigniew Wassermann and Bishop Tadeusz Płoski.

In relation to the tragedy Prime Minister Donald Tusk called all the ministers for an extraordinay session of the Polish governement to be held on Saturday.

According to Poland’s constitution, on the death of a president while in office, the second highest ranking politician takes over as head of state, in this case this is Speaker of Parliament Bronislaw Komorowski.
(Polish Radio and TV)