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2010-04-10 11:00:01 - Vehicle Accident - Russia EDIS CODE: VI-20100410-25636-RUS
Date & Time: 2010-04-10 11:00:01 [UTC]
Area: Russia, Smolensk Region, , Pechorsk !!! ALERT !!! Number of death person(s): 132
Damage level: Catastrophic (Level 5)
Not confirmed information! Description: Polish President Lech Kaczynski and up to 131 others traveling with him to commemorate the mass killing of Polish officers during World War Two died on Saturday when his plane crashed on landing in western Russia. "On Saturday, President Kaczynski's Tu-154 airplane crashed when landing near the town of Pechorsk, Smolensk region, in heavy fog," Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General's Investigations Committee said. "There were 132 people on board the plane, including the president and his spouse." In a conflicting report, a spokesperson for Russian Emergencies Ministry said there were 96 people on board. "According to the latest information, there were 96 people on board including 88 [from the] official delegation," the Emergencies Ministry spokesperson said. Both sources said there were no survivors. Russia's Rossiya-24 television showed footage of the crash scene showing wreckage of the plane scattered across a field with the airplane's wing raising high like a monument. "The crash to the ground was so strong that the plane burst into small pieces," the Rossiya-24 correspondent at the scene said. Officials said that apart from the presidential couple and the crew, Kaczinski's Soviet-made Tu-154 three-engine mid-range jet plane was carrying an official delegation of senior officials, including the chief of the armed forces general staff and central bank head. There was no information who else was on board.
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