Pilot ignored fog advice

“The pilot was advised to fly to Moscow or Minsk because of heavy fog, but he still decided to land. No one should have been landing in that fog,” he said.Polish Justice Minister Krzysztof Kwiatkowski said he would order a special inquiry into the crash.

Church services were hastily held throughout Poland. In Warsaw people started gathering outside the presidential palace to lay flowers and light candles. “I’m all broken up... it cannot be expressed in words,” said Ewa Robaczewska.

Among the other casualties of the crash were Kaczynski’s wife Maria, along with Slawomir Skrzypek, 47, who had been central bank governor since 2007, the chief of Poland’s military Franciszek Gagor and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.

Under Polish law, the president also names the head of the central bank. Some relatives of victims of the Katyn massacres were also on board the plane, said a Polish government official in Smolensk.

Thousands of Polish prisoners of war and intellectuals were murdered at Katyn by Soviet forces in spring 1940 in an enduring symbol for Poles of their suffering under Soviet rule.