The mourning procession with the body of Polish President Lech Kaczynski who died in an air crash arrived on Sunday at the presidential palace as tens of thousands of Poles lined the streets to pay last tribute.
Kaczynski and his wife, as well as many other top military, religious and other officials, died Saturday morning as the Soviet-made Tu-154 aircraft carrying them hit the top of trees as it attempted to land at a Smolensk airport in western Russia in thick fog. A total of 96 people on board - 88 passengers and eight crew - were killed.
The Polish Armed Forces' guard of honor, the president's twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, parliament speaker and acting president Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and other officials met a military plane that carried Kaczynski's body to the airport in the Polish capital.
The crashed Tu-154 was to have brought Kaczynski and a delegation of top Polish officials to a ceremony to pay tribute to over 20,000 Polish officers who were executed in the Katyn forest and other locations by Soviet secret police in 1940. The officers had been taken prisoner by Soviet forces when the U.S.S.R. invaded Poland during the early days of World War Two.
Komorowski declared seven days of national mourning. The burial date has not been defined yet.
President's last conversation with brother
A Polish member of the European Parliament said Sunday Lech Kaczynski and his brother Jaroslaw spoke on the phone half an hour before the tragedy.
"President Lech Kaczynski called his brother Jaroslaw from the presidential Tu-154 plane 36 minutes prior to the tragic crash," Adam Bielan, who is also a companion of the Kaczynski brothers in the Law and Justice party, said.
Bielan said that Jaroslaw asked Lech whether he had landed in Smolensk and Lech answered "not yet," but added that it would happen soon.
Investigation
Russian investigators, experts and Polish specialists are jointly investigating the causes of the plane crash.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who heads Russia's government commission investigating the reasons of the air crash, flew back on Sunday to the site of the plane crash to pay last respects to Kaczynski.
Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia's Investigative Committee, on Sunday reported to Putin citing preliminary results that the deciphered records confirmed the absence of technical problems with the plane.
"The pilot was informed about complex weather conditions and, nevertheless, made a decision on landing," Bastrykin said.
WARSAW, April 11 (RIA Novosti)
