On this day in 2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries.

25 comments

  1. On 10 April 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft operating Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board.

    Among the victims were the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and his wife, Maria, the former president of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers, the president of the National Bank of Poland, Polish Government officials, 18 members of the Polish Parliament, senior members of the Polish clergy, and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre.

    The group was arriving from Warsaw to attend an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the massacre, which took place not far from Smolensk.

  4. Infinite arrogance and impunity. Works domestically against domestic population, in hostile environment makes you smash your stupid face.

  5. The day when Polish “civil war” started. Since then, we are more divided than ever and our politics are still using this tragic incident as a political tool.

  8. Could’ve just diverted to a civil airport with proper equipment for an airliner in that conditions a bit further like they were told to. I wonder why that event was so important politically that they needed to land right there no matter what. And wtf were high ranked officials doing in the cockpit.

    Reminds me of [this crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Pushkin_Tu-104_crash) that killed the whole Soviet Pacific Fleet’s command. Basically, officers took a lot of shit with them and forced the crew to fly an overloaded plane. The flight lasted 8 seconds.

  10. Former Polish government hand over investigation to Putin againtst previous agreement.

    Minutes after the crash info Bronisław Komorowski become next president of Poland.

    Additionally Months earlier, Bronisław Komorowski, which represented opposite party, gave an interview about struggles between ruling party and his, opposition one. To a question how he think this can be solved (standard question in that situation) said that there could be a possibility that ruling president will step into a plane and it will crash. This suppose to be a joke.

    Almost none from European leaders attended to a funeral. They excused themselves putting blame on Iceland volcano eruption. Only German minister came by helicopter, Marocco prime minister by small Cessna plane and Georgia President, Mr Sakashwili, the same which is now put in hospital without proper treatment.

  12. >By 1 June 2017, exhumations of 27 coffins had been completed and DNA tests confirmed that 24 of those coffins, Kaczyński’s among them, showed evidence of mix-ups, including switched bodies, partial sets of remains and multiple remains in one grave.[46]

    That’s a big yikes. An understandable one after a plane crash but still.

  15. [Smolensk air disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_air_disaster)

    >Both the Russian and Polish official investigations found no technical faults with the aircraft, and concluded that the crew failed to conduct the approach in a safe manner in the given weather conditions. The Polish authorities found serious deficiencies in the organization and training of the Air Force unit involved, which was subsequently disbanded. Several high-ranking members of the Polish military resigned following pressure from politicians and the media.

    >Various conspiracy theories have been circulated alleging that the plane had been deliberately brought down by the Russians in an act of political assassination, with these theories also typically alleging that the 2011 investigations constituted a cover-up and that the Polish government of the time — primarily controlled by the Civic Platform party as opposed to Lech Kaczyński’s Law and Justice party — was complicit in or aware of the plot or at least aided in the efforts to cover it up.[3] While neither of the 2011 investigations reported any evidence supporting these claims, with the Polish investigation also examining whether Russian air control failures were a contributory factor in the crash,[2] the conspiracy theories are regularly promoted by Jarosław Kaczyński, twin brother of Lech Kaczyński and current leader of the Law and Justice party, and his deputy, Antoni Macierewicz,[4][5][6][7] and were given an official veneer following the 2022 conclusion of a further investigation by the Polish government, which by then was being led by the Law and Justice party.[8][9] The new report did not produce any evidence that could conclusively challenge the 2011 reports,[3] and was later indicated to have been the subject of tampered evidence.[10]

  16. My first though on that day: Damn, like in some kind of god forsaken African country.

    Second: Oh boy, it is gonna be a mess. And it was.

    Forcing pilots to land in some shithole during heavy mist on basically a field airport ended with a crash. This entire trip was meant to benefit the campaign before upcoming presidential elections.

  17. [On 6 June 2010](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_air_disaster), it was reported that payments worth €1,400 had been made from a credit card found on the body of historian Andrzej Przewoźnik, one of the victims of the crash. Credit cards belonging to the politician Aleksandra Natalli-Świat were also missing, but not used in transactions.[57] On 8 June 2010, ITAR-TASS reported that four soldiers of Unit 06755 had been charged in connection with the theft, after being found in possession of three credit cards used to withdraw a total of 60,345 roubles.[58] A Polish spokesperson said that the first withdrawals using the cards had been made around two hours after the crash.[59] The Polish government admitted that the Russian soldiers involved in the theft were probably conscripts, and that earlier reports blaming members of Russia’s OMON forces for the theft had been a mistake

  25. On this day my future wife woke me up with a text message “Kaczyński fuckin crashed lol”. We were supposed to go on our first date then.

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