Tragedy for Poland

Goodbye to the Polish President

Official Presidential Plane carrying the Polish President, its wife and some of the most important persons such as the chief of the Polish General Staff, members of the Polish military elite, Poland's deputy foreign Minister, the president of the National Bank of Poland, 12 members of the Parliament and relatives of the Katyn massacre victim, crashed before reaching the military airport of Smolensk, leaving no survivors


By ROXANA CIUPARIU (roxana.ciupariu@wavemagazine.net)
from Bucharest, ROMANIA


On 10th of April 2010 Poland suffered a great loss caused by the death of its President, Lech Kaczynski, along with the death of some of the most important elite members of the Polish state. The tragedy that struck this developed country happened when the Polish Air Force plane, a Tupolev Tu-154M model, crashed near Smolensk, Russia. Fog and bad manoeuvre of the landing procedures, along with collision with the trees in the attempt to land, created the fatal combination. As far as investigations go until now, nature and, most importantly, the tactics of the pilots, were at fault for the death of all 96 people aboard the plane.

Official Presidential Plane carrying the Polish President, its wife and several important persons such as the chief of the Polish General Staff, members of the Polish military elite, Poland's deputy foreign Minister, the president of the National Bank of Poland, 12 members of the Parliament and relatives of the Katyn massacre victim, crashed before reaching the military airport of Smolensk, leaving no survivors.

The purpose of the ceremonial visit on Russian soil was to mark 70 years of the massacre, which happened in an area near Smolensk. There, in the area of Katyn, in April-May 1940, around 22,000 Polish nationals lost their lives at the hands of NKDV, the Soviet Secret Police. Given the coincidence of the days for these two tragic events, Polish people will have two things to commemorate in this place: first the massacre, then the loss of a president sympathised by its nationals, as well as the loss of 95 more lives. Certain people in Poland gave raise to voices that this action was thought of, and not merely a simply accident.

Russia was the first state to react after the initial shock. Following the accident, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev organised a special team, lead by its Prime Minister and former President Vladimir Putin, whose task is to look into the causes of this tragedy, in collaboration with the Polish teams, which were sent in Russia soon after the event.



According to the first insight into the causes of the disaster, it seems that weather conditions, alongside the bad judgement of the pilots, were the main culprits. Given the fog which drastically reduced the visibility, the pilot was attempting to land. However, as some presented the discussions were in Russian, instead of English, which first led to the presumption that the pilot did not understand very well. This first assumption was given up as the investigations continued, giving voices to another supposition, apparently more reliable and accurate.

The online Russian newspaper Rianovosti informed its readers that the pilot ignored the ground control advices of turning towards Minsk for a more proper landing. This led to the forced landing attempt, which resulted into the plane hitting the trees due to the low level it was at - a level which could not be estimated due to bad weather conditions - its fall on the ground, and the subsequent bursting into flames along with breaking into pieces upon contact with the soil. The other theory which states the 20-years old plane was not so secure and that this was the real cause of the accident was soon given up on, after a review of the flight recorders (the black boxes) which led to the dropping of any suspicions of the kind.

The Mourning of the Man

The whole world was in shock and, with Russia being the first to express its condolences, followed by a suite of chief-of-states and government. The date of April 18th was set as mourning day, after the initial two minutes of silence organised across Poland on that fatidic Sunday, followed by the mourning day in Russia, which was declared by President Medvedev as Monday the 11th of April. The following week up to the official commemoration was declared a week of mourning and preparations for Sunday in the Polish state, although the cloud of ash from the Icelandic volcano seriously threatened the presence of important personalities, such as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the USA President, Barack Obama.

Flowers and candles were put near the crash site, in Russia, but the biggest commemoration of the kind was organised in Warsaw, where people gathered outside the presidential palace, presenting sad faces, putting flowers and lighting candles. According to Guardian UK thousands of Polish attended the memorial for the president and his wife on Sunday 18th of April, a memorial not only for them, but one meant for every person which died on the plane crash. Saturday was the day when people started the mourning on streets, all upset and shocked by this accident, one of the biggest since the Second World War.

As far as the figure of the President goes, he had fewer powers than the Prime Minister, as the Polish Constitutions clearly states. However, Lech Kaczynski, a man in power since 2005 and founder of the Law and Justice Party, was an advocate for a right-wing Catholicism, a nationalist conservative, "opposed rapid free-market reforms and favoured retaining social welfare programmes" portray him BBC News and Wall Street Journal. He was a man sympathised by the crown, whose shocking death left many suffering, starting with his daughter and twin brother, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. He was a man who will be truly missed.



(Published: 10.05.2010.)