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Contact photographer Martin Lidzba
What: Polish Air Force Tupolev TU-154M
Where: Smolensk
When: Apr 10th 2010
Who: 88 passengers and 8 crew
Why: On approach to Smolensk North Airport in dense fog, the plane impacted a forest, coming to rest short of the runway. There are conflicting reports leading up to the decision to land at Smolensk (versus Minsk or Moscow), holding pattern, the number of approaches.
Everyone aboard the flight was lost, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, the national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic Committee head, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers.
Partial list of those lost in the crash:
1. Lech Kaczynski, President of the Republic of Poland
2. Maria Kaczynska, the president’s wife
3. Ryszard Kaczorowski, head of Poland’s London-based government-in-exile during the communist period
4. General Tadeusz Buk, Head of Polish Land Forces
5. Leszek Deptula, MP
6. Grzegorz Dolniak, MP
7. Katarzyna Doraczynska, President’s Chancellery
8 Janina Fetlinska, Senator
9. General Franciszek Gagor, Chief of Staff
10. Grazyna Gesicka, MP
11. Przemyslaw Gosiewski, MP
12. Mariusz Handzlik, Minister at the President’s Chancellery
13. Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, MP
14. Sebastian Karpiniuk, MP
15. Admiral Andrzej Karweta, Head of Polish Navy
16. Mariusz Kazana, Foreign Ministry
17. Janusz Kochanowski, Poland’s Ombudsman
18. Stanislaw Jerzy Komorowski, Deputy Defence Minister
19. Andrzej Kremer, Deputy Foreign Minister
20. Janusz Kurtyka, National Remembrance Institute head
21. Tomasz Merta, Deputy Culture Minister
22. Aleksandra Natalli-Swiat, MP
23. Piotr Nurowski, head of Polish Olympics Committee
24. Krzysztof Putra, Deputy Speaker of parliament
25. Arkadiusz Rybicki, MP
26. Slawomir Skrzypek, head of Poland’s central bank
27. Wladyslaw Stasiak, head of Kaczynski’s Chancellery
28. Aleksander Szczyglo, head of the National Security Bureau
29. Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Deputy Speaker of parliament
30. Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz, MP
31. Izabela Tomaszewska, President’s Chancellery
32. Anna Walentynowicz, former Solidarity activist
33. Zbigniew Wassermann, MP
34. Wieslaw Woda, MP
35. Edward Wojtas, MP
36. Pawel Wypych, Minister and Kaczynski’s Chancellery
37. Stanislaw Zajac, Senator
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