This is so strange to report.
The President of Poland, his wife and a number of Government members and other politicians died today in a plane crash.
It doesn’t seem real. I mean he wasn’t the most popular president, I know I didn’t like him, but no-one should die like that.
It’s going to be a strange time in Polish politics, with everyone trying to sort the present situation out.
Sad news for Poland.
Don’t know if that’s a bad record or not - I suppose you’d need to know the number of hours flown or something - but it seems one hears about these things crashing fairly often.
So far it is believed to have been pilot error. Apparently the airport was closed due to heavy fog, and the plane was recommended to divert to Moscow or Minsk. And after four landing attempts they hit a tree and crashed. Probably the pilot was ordered to land despite the warning, and didn’t dare to refuse. There was a similar incident in 2008 where the polish president’s pilot refused to land in Tbilisi due to the bad conditions, and apparently he got a lot of shit for that, and was nearly dismissed.
I think it’s too early to blame the plane.
In that plane crash Poland have lost:
Oh my god. Has anything like that happened before, ever?
I hope the Russians do not try to take advantage of the situation.
What, you mean like try to take over? I don’t think so, although it can be a bit tricky with that neighbour. We don’t have a good history together.
But it’s not the end of the world. The next presidential election was to take place in September, now it will take place sometime in June/July.
The Prime Minister is still alive, and the role of the President will be taken over by the Speaker of the Sejm, and as he is in the same party as the Prime Minister I don’t anticipate any major conflicts in appointing new people for the empty seats.
The country won’t fall into total disarray.
How horrible.
The NYT article links estimates that 1/10th of the country’s top leadership was killed in the crash.
Henrichek, the linked story cites Polish TV and says that air traffic control had ordered a Russian air force plane not to land, but couldn’t issue the same order to a Polish flight. I’ve checked a couple of German news sources and they’re also reporting that the flight was advised to divert landing to Minsk, but the flight crew decided to go ahead and attempt landing.
olives, I don’t remember ever reading of a crash with such impact on any country.
How very sad.
I feel so sad for the people of Poland. My heart goes out to them for this tragedy, as it really does seem like quite a large loss of people there.
Best of wishes and luck to Poland for these next few months, with a hope that things will transition smoothly and there’s no evidence of foul play.
I know. I keep wanting to send Poland a sympathy card.
I wonder when the trees were last checked? Unfortunately, trees have a habit of growing. I remember reading a tale from a pilot of a company jet arriving at a small airport in America where he felt that the trees near the airport were a bit tall. When he reported this, he found that their height hadn’t been checked in years. IIRC the local sheriff got in a chain-gang of prisoners to trim the trees.
Thank you. Know that this one Polish person appreciates it.
How terrible for Poland–I’ve never head of anything like it. Good to hear that things won’t fall apart completely; from that list it sure looked possible.
I’m sorry for your loss, people of Poland. 
Wow - that is so tragic. Compounded by the fact that they were all on their way to a memorial at Katyn and the significance of the people on board. I know how we feel as Americans when we lose *one *ex-president. I can’t imagine this.
So sorry.
“Dude, don’t land here, it’s foggy and shit.”
“Nah, we’re ok.”
“No, really dude, go to Minsk or some shit.”
“We got it, we’ll be there in 5.”
Holy Wellstone, Batman.
What the hell? It’s not like they wouldn’t have been able to afford to split the group up? Wasn’t that just asking for a catastophe? I thought heads of state went separately as a matter of protocol?
That’s what I was thinking. Why were so many important people on the same plane?
The news reported the prime minister said that this was “the greatest tragedy in the history of postwar Poland.”
But you know how your brain hears where a sentence is headed and starts to wonder wtf the speaker is talking about? Yeah. By the time they said “postwar,” I was already very much in “wtf” mode.
My understanding is that the office of President in Poland is more of a ceremonial head of state than an operational head of government. That doesn’t diminish the tragedy, but perhaps it lessens the disruption somewhat.
What about the Foreign Minister? As some may know, his wife is American columnist Anne Applebaum. I’m assuming that we would have heard by now if she was on the plane. I’m sure her writing will be all about this tragedy for some time.
The irony of so many Polish officials dying in Russia on a trip to remember a Russian massacre of Polish officers is just overpowering.
There is only one Polish head of state, how do suppose they go about separating him? Concerning the rest of the people on the plane, I don’t think any of them were in the line of succession should the Polish president die, and arguably the most important figure in Polish politics, the PM, was not on the plane, and neither was the speaker of parliament, who is now replacing the president. So while there might have been important people on board, their deaths don’t cause any constitutional upset. So no, this is not ‘asking for catastrophe’, as you so nicely put it.
that is not quite accurate, though; the Polish president is much more than just a figurehead like, say, the German president. Although he shares his power with the more powerful PM, he continues to be quite an influential figure in politics especially if he and the PM are of the same political party.