Entire Polish leadership wiped out in plane crash

The President was arriving for a ceremony commemorating the murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet secret police after the Red Army invaded Poland. Air traffic controllers had recommended the President’s jet land at another airport because of bad visibility,but the crew decided to land anyway.

Russian media reported that the airplane’s crew made several attempts to land before a wing hit the treetops.

Among those on board were Kaczynski; his wife Maria; the deputy speaker of Poland’s parliament; the head of the president’s chancellery; the head of the National Security Bureau; the deputy minister of foreign affairs; the chief of the general staff of the Polish army; the president of Poland’s national bank; the commissioner for civil rights protection; the heads of all of Poland’s armed forces; and dozens of members of parliament.