Donald Tusk announces weekly mourning and two-minute silence

Donald Tusk announces weekly mourning and two-minutes’ silence

Donald Tusk: “The modern world has never witnessed such a drama before. The country has announced a national mourning. The government organized a special meeting of the Council of Ministers and promised to organize a 2-minutes’ silence at 12 p.m. tomorrow. We will mark the burial ceremony this way. The mourning will last for a week”.

Donald Tusk headed for Smolensk after the press conference. However, he is planning to come back today to share the latest information with the government at another emergency meeting.

Poland to conduct its own investigation of the catastrophe near Smolensk
Poland is going to conduct its own investigation of the crash of the Tu-154 that transported Lech Kaczyński. According to the Polish Minister of Justice Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will ask Russia to allow Polish prosecutors to enter the crash site. The Polish Attorney General  Krzysztof  Parulski and a group of military prosecutors have already left for Smolensk.

Dmitrii Medvedev has also promised to cooperate with Polish services during the investigation. The Russian President expressed the intention in a phone talk with the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Airport “Northern” does not have automatic navigation system for foggy weather

The airport “Northern” was used as a military airport until December 2009. It was used to repair troop-carriers. The airport did not have an automatic navigation system that could have saved the Polish plane in the thick fog, said the editor-in-chief of “Skrzydlata Polska” Grzegorz Sobczak in an interview with a Polish portal “Gazeta.pl”.

Grzegorz Sobczak: “The presidential Tu-154 was well-equipped for a landing in bad weather conditions. However, the plane’s system is only half of success. Airports should have a corresponding automatic navigation system to let planes land in bad weather conditions”.

Pilot of Kaczyński’s plane was advised not to land in “Northern”

A military plane from Moscow, Il-76, has to land in Northern Airport half an hour before Lech Kaczyński’s plane, reports a Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza”. The Il-76 made two landing attempts. However, it flew back to a Moscow airport Vnukovo 15 minutes before the crash of the Polish plane. Air communicators from “Northern” forbade it to land due to bad weather conditions.

An air communicator from “Northern” advised that Lech Kaczyński’s plane should also change the landing site. However, the pilot refused to return to Minsk.

Photos from crash site:

Smolensk Emergency Control Ministry: Plane broke into many pieces and fuel was spilt

Experts are working in the crash site of the Polish plane. The main version of the crash it a pilot’s mistake caused by bad weather conditions. The head of the press service Andrei Merkushev has told ERB about it:

"At the moment it is the only version – the visibility was less than 100 meters and the fog was very thick. The plane fell on the ground and broke into many pieces, the fuel was also spilt.

There were some ignitions but the fire was not big. Law-enforcement officials are working in the site now, an investigation is being conducted”.

A press-center is being organized near the site of the catastrophe; it will distribute all the information.

Pilot’s mistake or breakage could be the reason for the catastrophe

A breakage or a pilot’s mistake could be the reason for the catastrophe. Dariush Sobchinski, an experienced pilot of air liners has expressed the opinion in an interview with the PAP - a Polish information agency:

Dariush Sobchinski: “According to witnesses, the engines started running more actively and it means that the pilots decided to make a second landing attempt. It is a normal procedure when pilots do not notice any possibility of landing during the first attempt. The pilots were very good”.

Nevertheless, Dariush Sobchinski noted that the presidential plane was trying to land in thick fog which required a lot of attention and concentration. A mistake of the crew could be a reason for the catastrophe, informs a Russian agency “RIA-Novosti” referring to a source in security agencies of the Centre Federal District of Russia.
However, the Governmental Security Center in Warsaw has not confirmed any of the existing versions so far. According to the Centre, they do not even have the exact list of the passengers who were on board Lech Kaczyński’s plane.

Employee of the Governmental Security Center: “Our services are confirming the list of passengers so that we could announce who was on board. We cannot tell you the exact number of the victims either. It is because somebody boarded the plane at the last moment and some people refused to fly”.

The press service of the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk does not have any certain information either. The Prime Minister is flying from Gdansk to Warsaw to attend an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers now.

An employee of the press service of Donald Tusk: “Donald Tusk organized a special meeting of the Council of Ministers in the afternoon. It is always done in such cases. We will be able to present some certain information only after that”.

Kaczyński's plane did not make landing request in Minsk

Air communicators from Smolensk airport suggested that the Polish President’s plane should have landed in Minsk National Airport. It is known that Polish pilots of the presidential Tu-154 decided to continue the flight despite of bad weather.

Polish pilots were unlikely to consider the possibility of a crash landing in Belarus. The fact that air communicators of “Misnk-2” did not receive any enquiries about it from the crew testifies to it. Employees of the National Airport “Minsk” have informed ERB about it:

"Smolensk suggested that they should land in Minsk. But they did not make any enquiries here”.

List of plane crash victims:

"Wiadomosci" is updating an online list of the people killed in the crash of the presidential plane.

First video from Polish Tu-154 crash site