Poland has marked the 10th anniversary of the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others. But a gathering of politicians drew accusations of hypocrisy amid a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Image: picture-alliance/PAP/P. Nowak
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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was joined by more than a dozen ruling party politicians on Friday, for a wreath-laying ceremony to remember the victims of the Smolensk air disaster.
Scores of members of a high-level Polish delegation, including President Lech Kaczynski, died on April 10, 2010, as the plane approached an airport near the Russian city of Smolensk.
A large number of Poles, including President Andrzej Duda, suspect that the crash was not caused by pilot error, as concluded in an investigation by Poland's previous centrist government, but by foul play.
Duda, who is an ally of the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) on Friday said he regretted that the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to mark the tragedy properly.
"After 10 years, it's difficult to say anything or predict whether the case can ever be resolved," said Duda, after visiting Kaczynski's grave in Krakow.
PiS was founded by the deceased president and his identical twin brother Jaroslaw, who remains party chairman.
The Smolensk crash was Poland's worst tragedy since World War II. It killed not only the president and first lady, but many other top government and military officials. The fact that the delegation had been traveling to commemorate the 1940 Katyn massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers by the Soviet Union only served to deepen the national sense of grief.
However, some members of the opposition accused the ruling party of double standards, with the ceremony taking place as the country remained under strict lockdown.
"It is not all right," said Jan Grabiec, a spokesman for centrist opposition party Civic Platform. "With all certainty, there was a way to mark today's anniversary by following the rules that all Poles must follow, and that Poles pay fines for breaking."
Cezary Tomczyk, a lawmaker with Civic Platform, said it was "outrageous'' that parks and forests have been closed across the country, and with fines handed out to regular citizens for flouting the rules.
"Yesterday a hairdresser got a fine of 10,000 zlotys (€2,200, $2,400) for opening the business for one client,'' Tomczyk said. "What kind of example is this? What kind of hypocrisy?''
DW takes a look at a few of the most deadly and significant plane crashes in Europe in the 21st century.
Image: AP/Toshihiko Sato
European aviation disasters of the 21st century: Germanwings Airbus A320
A Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed into the French Alps on March 24, 2015 during a flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. A co-pilot with mental problems intentionally crashed the plane.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17
Rebels in eastern Ukraine were accused of shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014 during a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board died, 193 of them Dutch. A Dutch investigation found pro-Russian rebels shot the plane down with a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from separatist territory in eastern Ukraine.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Dunand
Polish President Lech Kaczynski killed
A Polish air force plane carrying President Lech Kaczynski crashed near the Russian airport of Smolensk on April 10, 2010. A Russian and Polish investigation found pilot error during landing in thick fog caused the crash that killed more than 90 people. Jaroslaw Kaczynski (pictured), the twin brother of Lech and leader of the ruling PiS, has suggested the crash was a political assassination.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Kaminski
Air France Flight 447
An Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed in the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people on board. It took nearly two years for the black box (pictured) to be recovered from the bottom of the ocean. The investigation found a combination of technical and pilot error caused the crash.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Spanair Flight 5022
A Spanair MD-82 plane crashed after take-off from Madrid airport on August 20, 2008, killing 154 people. Amazingly, 18 people survived the crash and subsequent fire. The crash was caused by an improper flap and slat configuration and a failure of the pilots to follow a pre-flight checklist.
Image: AP
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612
A Russian passenger plane operated by Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise crashed near the eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk on August 22, 2006, killing all 170 people aboard. The plane was flying from St. Petersburg to the Black Sea resort of Anapa.
Image: AP
Helios Airways Flight 522
A Helios Airways flight from Cyprus crashed on August 14, 2005 near its destination Athens, killing all 121 on board. The crash was caused by a loss of cabin pressurization that immobilized the crew. The plane flew on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed.
Image: AP
Überlingen mid-air collision
On the night of July 1, 2002, a DHL cargo plane flying near the southern German town of Überlingen struck a Russian passenger jet carrying mostly schoolchildren to Barcelona, Spain. The two men aboard the DHL plane and all 69 passengers and crew on Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 perished. Swiss air traffic control firm Skyguide was found to be at fault for the tragedy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Haid
SAS Flight 686
On October 8, 2001 a Scandinavian Airlines MD-87 airliner collided with a small Cessna on take-off from Milan's Linate Airport. All 114 people on the SAS and Cessna aircraft were killed, as were four people on the ground. The accident happened in thick fog. The SAS plane crashed into a hangar.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Ansa
Air France Concorde Flight
On July 25, 2000 an Air France Concorde flight from Paris to New York crashed two minutes after take-off, killing 109 people on board and four people on the ground. The crash was caused by the Concorde running over a piece of debris on the runway, which sent tire debris into part of the fuel tank that burst into flames.
Image: AP/Toshihiko Sato
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Dispute over wreckage
Meanwhile, Poland's Foreign Ministry said it had sent a diplomatic note to the Russian Embassy in Warsaw demanding the return of the plane wreckage.
Polish officials said that, in the communiqué, Moscow had been urged to ''immediately surrender Poland's property.''
The request has been made on several occasions in the past, with Russia replying that it is keeping the wreckage of the Tupolev plane as part of an ongoing investigation. Moscow says there is no evidence of an explosion on board the plane, as some in Poland have alleged.
rc/aw (AP, Reuters)
Poland commemorates first anniversary of Smolensk crash
