I just read in the news that the President of Poland and his wife died in a plane crash in Russia along with 87 other passengers and crew on board. Very sad news. Condolences to all affected by this disaster. 

Link to the news article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8612825.stm

yes , they crashed exactly hour ago, 400m from airport, President and his wife with 84 polish politics and bishop died....we are in the mourning

Terrible news for all,Poland in a state of shock...May they rest in peace...Too many valuable people on the board..Huge loss for our country...

my deepest condolences to all Poles

and they were flying to honor the memory of Katyn victims.

My condolences to all Poles. 

It is very sad that unfortunately with this saddening accident I found out you are from Poland. I have nothing to say other than to send my condolences to you and your country.

I can imagine what a shock it must be for the nation. I don´t remember any similar tragedy in whole history.

May they rest in peace and my deepest condolences to all Poles.

Very tragic.. I still can´t believe how this could have happened... Do tree tops still cause plane crashes? I really want to know the details of the investigation.

My deepest condolences to all Poles.

I have beeen too sad.

May Allah’s blessings be upon you. 

Yes, even a tiny thing may cause the crash, even brids that get sucked into the engines.

A great Concord crashed because of a little piece of metal.

I really liked the speech of Saakashvili, the president of Georgia.

The plane that crashed is from a line of planes with a bad reputation. So even though the weather was bad, the first instinct says that it was a malfunction in the plane. It´s a human tragedy, so many people gone in one blow. But this also has a more political side. Some top politicians were in this plane, and the entire military top has also died in this crash. I wonder how this will affect the country.

 It is a huge tragedy,all that died were devoted to Poland and her independence.Our political situation is under control and the nation in face of such a loss is united.The country mourns but as our National anthem words´ say"

Poland will not perish till Polish nation lives..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmFHUbVQtA

The country will survive barba,as she did in the past.

Terrible disaster for the Polish nation made even worse by the nature of there planned visit. My deepest sympathies to all Poles.

 I know Poland is not some banana-state, so in that way it will be fine. But still, such a large group of people, who where all very powerful. In any case, even if they were not powerful people, this would be such a tragedy. A life lost is a life lost

 life is too fragile,one day you are alive ,the other day people mourn you.True that we lost influential people,in fact too many of them.true our governmental planes were out of date,true the loss is symbolic.Katyn means the loss of intelectual elite for us in the Second World War,and now the sign that history likes repeating itself.And true that we are not banana state...

It´s still hard for me to believe what happened...I was not an enthusiast of the President and his views, but is a tragedy to the whole nation and to all the families who lost their next of kin. There hasn´t been a greatest catastrophe in Poland since the war.

I seriously hope people will respect the memory of those who died and won´t start making up conspiracy theories. Some Polish forums already comment that Russia might have been involved as the president recently commented they would stab us in the back too many times. I hope people will take it as it is - a tragedy and a terrible loss due to an unfortunate combination of weather conditions and possibly human mistake.

The plane they were on was very old, that´s true, but it underwent a substantial repair last year and was in perfect order.

My friends,

i just back from special mass to home ..Warsaw looking  as place without life, street where is President Palace still is full of people, they are praying , thinking or only looking....

feelings around are so deep and this sadness...its terrible...i hope noone of us wont have similar view in future...i feel a bit scared and lost ...especially that one of them i knew personally

at 3pm polish time, our President body came to Warsaw, now in funeral procession they are going to President Palace....

+1

From the news so far the Russian response has been great and truth is that they have been making positive steps towards reconciliation with Poland recently, Putin has commemorated with Tusk the Katyn massacre earlier this week. Of course there will be conspiracy theories as to what/who caused the crash, but as long as the investigation is open and transparent, the facts will be obvious. At this point it seems like the biggest cause was the pilot´s decision to land in Smolensk, despite warnings about the bad weather and advice to land in Minsk; apparently earlier that day (or night) there was a Russian plane that was going to land in that same airport, but decided not to due to the weather. 

And yes, the plane was old, but it was completely renewed last year, with new engines, controllers and interior.

So what angers me most is the deaths that are caused by human arrogance (and human evil in other circumstances), deaths that are preventable, but happen because someone gives themselves permission to play with other people´s lives!

Russian experts say none of the pilots try to land on Smolenks once more after failing to land twice, therefore some say maybe pilot was pressured to try out once more by passengers.

It wouldn´t be surprising really. We know Kaczynski wanted to make it to the ceremony in Katyn, he might have ordered the pilot to land despite the conditions. A similar situation happened before, but back then the pilot refused to land or take off (I can´t remember exactly) and Kaczynski was mad about it. Perhaps this time the pilot couldn´t refuse as there were top generals on board...

First, let me offer my condolences to the Polish members of this site and through them to all the Polish nation which is about all that we can do in the face of of such a tragic incident.

I frequently travel by plane. Though  it can´t be said I  have a phobia, I often think about the possibilities that involve environmental factors and human errors. I usually don´t feel at ease before the plane successfuly takes off or the wheels safely touch the ground. Many an accident happened because of a little something that happened without anyone noticing. Though most of them were absolutely avoidable, such mistakes do happen on and off often causing big tragedies. 

What has happened cannot possibly be undone. Poland must now find a way to make up for the damage this unexpected incident has caused. It is time to be strong and constructive.

My deepest sympathy goes to all our Polish members. 

I really am at a loss for words in this catastrophe, other words than may all those who have passed on rest in peace, may Allah have mercy on their souls. May those whose lives are made sad be healed of their pain and suffering.

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