Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed early Saturday when the plane he was traveling in with his wife and a Polish delegation crashed at a western Russian airport, according to the Russian regional governor.
“There are no survivors,” said Smolensk Governor Sergey Antufyev, according to his spokesman.
Eight-nine people died in the plane crash, a Polish Foreign Ministry official told CNN.
The president, 60, had been traveling with a Polish delegation to Russia for the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish prisoners of war in the village of Katyn. Some 20,000 Polish officers were executed there during World War II.
The plane was approaching the airport at Smolensk, Russia — just a few miles east of Katyn — and probably hit some trees at the end of the runway, Paszkowski said.
Pictures from the scene showed parts of the airplane charred and strewn through a wooded area. Some pieces, including one of the wheel wells, were upside-down.
The crash happened around 10:50 a.m. (2:50 a.m. ET) on the outskirts of the town of Pechorsk, just outside of Smolensk, the Investigation Committee of the Russian prosecutor’s office said in a written statement on its Web site.
The Tupolev-154 was landing in heavy fog, the committee said.
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Article courtesy cnn.com
