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Plane Crash of Poland’s Government: Your Theories

Posted by majestic on April 10, 2010

Polish Air Force Tupolev Tu-154M, similar to the one that crashed in Russia. Photo: Hiuppo (CC)

Tupolev Tu-154M, Polish Air Force. Photo: Hiuppo (CC)

Damian Thompson writes in the UK’s Daily Telegraph that he fully expects myriad conspiracy theories about the unfortunate plane crash killing Poland’s president and other government members. I’m sure he’s right, but having flown on a similarly vintage Tupolev jet I suspect that it’s more likely a case of the Russian plane being unsafe, too old and way past it’s junkyard date. Here’s Thompson’s view:

Polish president Lech Kaczynski has been killed in an air crash, along with many of his country’s top brass. One of the nastier consequences of international disasters is that conspiracy theorists rush to judgment – and I do mean rush. The fact that the president and so many of the Polish elite were on a visit to Russia will feature prominently in the fantastic stories being cooked up in cyberspace right now. And I can say with confidence that they are being cooked up, because Poland, like most East European countries, is obsessed with conspiracies. Russians, Jews, Americans, Freemasons – they will all be blamed. Some stories will be more credible than others. These explanations are so much more emotionally satisfying to traumatised people than the likely truth: that the Polish politicians – like so many politicians in less developed countries – were accustomed to risking their lives in dodgy planes.

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  • true_liberal

    No, the Tupolev wasn't exactly new, but there's no indication that this 20-year old plane had any significant malfunction.

    The Smolensk airport was not equipped to support aircraft operations in the heavy fog that existed, and so the Russian ATC rightfully recommended the Polish crew to divert to an alternate, safer destination. But with a planeload of VIPs aboard, the captain felt either subtle or overt pressure to complete the planned landing. This type of pressure has existed in executive aviation for many decades. It has largely been corrected in the West, but evidently not in Eastern Europe.

    In a way, I expect that the recent WV coal mine disaster will be found to have a similar root cause.

  • Gawith

    Dear citizens of USA: your president uses older plane than this crashed Tupolev. Check it if dont believe.

  • Lacquer Head Carney

    Well on the news some dude said that the president was known to make his pilots land in bad weather before. but i think it was HITLER!!!! FREAKING NAZI ZOMBIES KILLED THE POLISH PRESIDENT!!!

  • raydar878

    It is obvious what happened that tragic day. The Russians killed them all since it was a chance for the Poles to fully expose what happened to them in the past.

  • Zack

    While I like to consider myself a rational person excepting the existence of natural disasters “Acts of God” as they are euphemistically put. I however; can not ignore the man-made “coincidences” that occur from time to time and which we are suppose to accept as some random or benign act of fate. I am more inclined to believe these “unpredictable acts of fate” are in reality planned and executed by the parties that benefit and there are always parties that benefit.
    As someone once said and I paraphrase “just because your paranoid doesn't mean someones not out to get you”……

  • piotr

    samthor – your opinion is so naive that I feel I need to respond You. Firstly – how do You know that? have You been there. Did You personally meet those guys imprisoned and presecuted???? Or maybe You' ve just read somewhere?? Theres NO injustice for homosexualist in Poland. They have the same rights as other citizens. There are many homosexual people in media and they openly say that (vide mr. Raczek etc.) Nobody chase them ob streets with fire and holy water. So just to be clear – its just Your prejudice to back Your statements. Additionally there were many cases in polish media to defend homosexual people which were involved in simply criminal activity like pedophilia etc. Their line of defense was always that their country is homophobic and anti homosexual but in fact like in every community there are people with different opinions – either pro or against. Even around You there are people with same attitude.

  • nester

    what do you mean by less developed?
    is it your ignorance? what is your evidence base?

  • CheeseOfGlory

    Wait, so eastern european countries are obsessed with conspiracy theories now? Try living under the boot-heel of communism and the soviet union for 50 years then tell me you still trust the government and police. I suppose the Katyn massacre was also some crazy conspiracy theory dreamed up by us fanatically anti-russian poles. Please, please stop masquerading as a real journalist and crawl back into the hole you came from

  • aniag
  • aniag
  • BB

    What do you know about the plane condition?
    I can tell you it was far better equipped and safer than the machines serving average people like you and me..

  • Synthetic J

    “the more people whom question these facts, the more voices that are heard”

    but we shouldn't listen to them, right, because they aren't from the half of what we read?

  • Synthetic J

    bluntly put, but agreed

  • ChicagoPaulski

    kudos!

  • Rich

    good commands

  • MM

    Another half baked opinion masquerading as fact from a talentless hack.
    His research source must have been the Beano!
    Beware imbeciles like this making assertions without any justification whatsoever.

  • samthor

    You are talking about the citizens. I am talking about the former president.
    Sure some the citizens may have been OK with gay rights, but the former president was NOT.
    One example: The former president tried to scare his people into believing the Libson treaty would lead to gay marriage which – of course- would cause “the eventual destruction of the human race”.
    (other examples are linked below. )

    I realize this crash and the deaths are tragic. And this will be a difficult time for Poland.
    But let's consider ALL the facts. Let's remember ALL he did for the country. Both good and bad. Let's not gloss over “certain things” and sweep them under the rug because they seem unpleasant & we don't want to deal with them. The man was who he was both good and bad. Let's not forget that. And more importantly, let's try to learn from it.

    http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/02/15/poland-of...
    http://blog.ctnews.com/evans/2010/04/10/anti-ga...
    http://www.workers.org/2006/world/poland-0622/
    http://montrealsimon.blogspot.com/2010/04/lech-...

  • Marek

    To all viewers of the above material.
    There is nothing to cook up, MR Thompson. I would like to briefly remind: throughout centuries Poland has been the object of conspiracies and Russia along with Germany played a great role in our mishappiness. in the 13-15th centuries there were the Teutonic Knights called “Krzyżacy” who wanted our land. Theye were in fact Germans. Hopefully we destroyed them.

    Poland ceased to exist on maps in 1772 due to RUSSIA, Germany and Austria. These three countries hatched plots to occupy our land forever. Poland disappeared from maps for 146 years.

    Then in 1920 we saved Europe against bolshevism. Had it not been for this fact, all European countries would have been communist. In spite of this fact, the world (among others: Britain, France) sold Poland to Stalin 1945.

    During the beginning of WWII all countries thought it unreasonable to help Poland. They thought Germany would simply occupy Poland leaving them safe.

    Before that in August 1944 the Red Army who were not a long distance from Warsaw did not help our guerilla soldiers in “Warsaw Uprising”. Americans, British and others did not help either. They preferred to see our nation die!

    Just after WWII we lost our independence again for over 40 years (1945-1989). (see: above)

    Countries like Germany and Russia plan to “regain” our motherland now. They will do it sooner or later. It is going to be economical and then physical. Nowadays, one does not need wars. Reasonable politics among with economical mechanisms such as European Union, all aiming at controlling the economy of a country, within the next 40-50 years will make it possible for people like Putin and Merkel to sit on our throne.

    Today, conspiracies are going on in Russia and KGB still exists (different name the same methods.)
    I do like Russian people (even had a Russian girlfriend once – lovely girl!) but have no trust in politics.

  • thetrollinator

    “The guy was a real dick to his gay community.”

    You'd think his gay community would welcome him with open holes.

  • http://twitter.com/Elizabeth_3166 Elizabeth Jones

    Who would want to kills the polish president…probably was the polish pilot who did not know how to fly..By the way I found a website that give you prizes for your opinions and 4 play games here is the topic about this:
    http://opinion.ezwingame.com/topics/did-the-pol...

  • http://twitter.com/Elizabeth_3166 Elizabeth Jones

    Who would want to kills the polish president…probably was the polish pilot who did not know how to fly..By the way I found a website that give you prizes for your opinions and 4 play games here is the topic about this:
    http://opinion.ezwingame.com/topics/did-the-pol...

  • dg

    Poland is not a “less developed country”, it is part of the European Union and one of the leading countries in Central Europe. The plane that they were flying, albeit was not breathtaking, however the TU model that they were flying was the most advanced version of this plane. The model that crashed and the one still in the Polish Air Force are two unique models of this plane, upgraded with modern equipment.

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