The Break For 4/10/10: A Sober Day In Poland,

Heartwrenching stuff. Just heartwrenching.

President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other senior Polish figures have been killed in a plane crash in Russia.

Polish and Russian officials said no-one survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog.
Russian media reports said the pilots ignored advice from air traffic control to divert to another airport.

Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the crash was the most tragic event of the country's post-World War II history.

The Polish delegation was flying in from Warsaw to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces during WWII.

To the nation of Poland, and all os those across Eastern Europe, our condolences are with you, no question about that.

And especially to the Kaczynski family.

Even more devastating is that the whole cabinet appeared to be with him, along with his wife:

SENIOR FIGURES KILLED
National leader:
President Lech Kaczynski and wife Maria
Other politicians:
Wladyslaw Stasiak chief of the president's chancellery;

Aleksander Szczyglo chief of the National Security Office;

Slawomir Skrzypek National Bank of Poland chairman;

Jerzy Szmajdzinski deputy speaker of the lower house;

Andrzej Kremer Foreign Ministry's undersecretary of state;

Stanislaw Komorowski deputy minister of national defence;

Przemyslaw Gosiewski Law and Justice party deputy chair;

Military chief: Franciszek Gagor chief of the General Staff
Cultural figures:
Andrzej Przewoznik head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites; Tomasz Merta chief historical conservator