Smolensk plane crash

[winter]

The plane carrying the Polish president, his wife and various officials just crashed in Smolensk, due to fog while landing

I'm... numb. I didn't vote for him, but oh, he loved cats (and Cats the musical), couldn't stand dancing vampires, during a visit to Japan his wife got dressed up in a kimono and squeed like a teenage girl showing it off to reporters. The military bishops (Catholic and Orthodox) were there too, and the guy who was the last president of our government-in-exile during Communism.

Past tense, already, and I hope, hope so much for survivors...

EDIT: Confirmed no survivors. Head of the National Bank of Poland, too, and top three or four of the major opposition party (which the president was part of). And all due to an ancient Russian plane that they were to replace ten years ago and got bogged down in public procurement. 87 dead.

Comments

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I've just seen it on the news, and... doesn't sound good. :-(

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

meep! :( This is especially horrible given the event they were going to commemorate :(

[winter]

Very much not good. I cannot imagine what will happen here over the next two weeks. That was about 10% of the most important people in the political system. And the head of the opposition party is the President's identical twin, a single and very obsessed man very attached to their elderly and ailing mother... poor, poor guy.

[winter]

Yes :((( I'm so sad especially about the 91-year-old ex-president-in-exile. 91 years of war and fighting communism, then to die like that...

(And Maria Kaczynska. She was quietly, quietly awesome, the personification of the quiet Polish housewife who knows very well what she's doing and wields more power than anyone suspects.)

[connie]

Oh no! :(

[amamiyarin.livejournal.com]

Oh, God. My condolences. Really sorry to read this. D:

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

That is horrible.... :/

[winter]

Newest information is that there were over 130 people on board :(

[utena1409.livejournal.com]

Omg, this is really horrible... :/
And so many important people at once... I guess it's going to be quite the chaos for a few days? :/

[wottie.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! That's awful, especially considering they've tried to replace the plane before! What's going to happen? Is there precedent for this kind of thing?

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Oh cripes. This is huge. I was just making fun of the drama between Mr Skrzypek and Mr Vincent-Rostowski a few days ago, and suddenly it's this.

I take it Ryszard Kaczorowski was onboard?

[winter]

*nods* To go from the Grey Scouts to POW to soldier to president, to see the war and Poland reborn only to die like that...

The presidential candidate of the leftist party (SLD) is also dead. And all of the Chiefs of Staff.

[winter]

There are procedures, but dear heavens, it'll be chaos. Apparently the Russians are putting Putin himself in charge of investigating it all, and for once I'm glad - like him or hate him, he's a competent spy-investigator-type-person.

[winter]

Quite so :( Thankfully no executive-branch government types apart from the vice-minister of National Defense, but still - all of the Chiefs of Staff for once, and so many prominent politicians. I can't think of a precedent.

[winter]

It's just - numbing.

[winter]

It's just - politicians, yes, but ours. The guy was president of Warsaw before. We shared a vet!

[arabwel.livejournal.com]

Yeah - they are your people! you might noet agree with them or like them but in the ned, they are sytill your people :/

[mariem-1.livejournal.com]

Oh God! It's horrible!

[hotbeast.livejournal.com]

Dowiedziałam się jadąc na Szembeka, jakaś starsza pani zaczęła wykrzykiwać wiadomości usłyszane przez telefon i aż trudno mi było uwierzyć... Kimkolwiek byli i jakie przekonania mieli teraz tylko ogarnia mnie żal że już ich nie ma. Prezydenta ja też nie wybrałam, ale jego żonę ceniłam i lubiłam. Może i dobrze że Putin ma nadzorować dochodzenie ale boję się jednego- Rosjanie zawsze trzymają karty przy orderach i nie ufam do końca ich wyjaśnieniom zdarzeń.
No to czeka nas chaos.

[winter]

No wlasnie Kaczynskiej mi strasznie zal. Kobieta z kompletna klasa, naprawde zuch dziewczyna.

Zbyt wiele osob to widzialo jak na teorie spiskowe. Podobno to bylo czwarte podejscie...

[winter]

It's just - these things shouldn't happen.

[hotbeast.livejournal.com]

Nie o spisek mi chodzi, raczej o to że będzie tam kilka czarnych plam do których nie będziemy mieli dostępu a rodziny zmarłych chciałyby je znać. Katastrofa miała miejsce na terenie obcego państwa, więc proszenie się o każdą informację będzie bardzo uciążliwe, a polityka zapewne nie ułatwi tych "kontaktów".

[winter]

Akurat tu bym sie nie zgadzala - dla Putina to straszna plama na honorze, wiec pewnie wszystko bedzie zapiete na ostatni guzik. No chyba ze jakies wojskowe rzeczy zwiazane ze stanem samego sprzetu na lotnisku...

[amenirdis.livejournal.com]

Oh my God. I am so sorry....

[hotbeast.livejournal.com]

No i już znalazłaś jedną potencjalną czarną plamę...