Polish President’s plane crashes in Russia

armradio.am
10.04.2010 13:37

A plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski has crashed near a
Russian airport, officials say.

Russian media reported that 87 people were killed in the crash near
Smolensk, and a regional governor was quoted as saying there were no
survivors.

Polish officials said Mr Kaczynski was on board along with his wife
Maria and several senior government figures.

The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane
crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT).

Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said it had been flying from
Moscow to Smolensk, but had no details on the identities of those
killed.

Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one
had survived.
"As it was preparing for landing, the Polish president’s aircraft did
not make it to the landing strip," he said.

"According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of
trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces. There are no
survivors in that crash.