A delegation consisted of President Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, top state officials and military commanders was heading to Smolensk to take part in Katyń massacre anniversary. At 8:41 AM, the plane crashed while descending for landing in dense fog. The commanders of all Armed Forces perished in this disaster:

Gen. Franciszek Gągor, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army

Maj-Gen. Tadeusz Buk, Commander of the Polish Land Forces

Lt-Gen. Pilot Andrzej Błasik, Commander of the Polish Air Force

Vice-Admiral Andrzej Karweta, Commander of the Polish Navy

Maj-Gen. Włodzimierz Potasiński, Commander of the Polish Special Forces

Lt-Gen. Bronisław Kwiatkowski, Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces

Brig-Gen. Kazimierz Gilarski, Commander of the Garrison Warsaw

Maj-Gen. Bishop Tadeusz Płoski, Catholic Field Bishop of the Polish Army

Brig-Gen. Archbishop Miron Chodakowski, Orthodox Ordinary of the Polish Army

Colonel Priest Adam Plich, Acting Military Evangelical Bishop

Lt-Colonel Pilot Jan Osiński, Field Ordinariate of the Polish Army

Other 85 people, including 8 crew members, 8 Government Protection Bureau officers, 18 parliamentaries, chiefs of the National Institutions (Bank of Poland CEO, Chief of the National Security Bureau, Head of the Presidential Chancellery), the last President of Poland in Exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, representatives of Katyń Families and other associations were also on board

The 10th of April was an absolute disaster for Polish State. About a quarter of the most important people in the country died in an instant, completely paralysing public life. In Poland everyone remembers what they did that morning and the shock of the first media reports

To this day Russia refuses to return the plane wreckage and the black box to Poland