TVN News & Services Agency

Poland marks the sixth anniversary of the 2010 plane crash in Russia that killed president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others. Plan of state commemoration to be announced.

Smolensk plane crash and its causes divided Polish society into half. The state commission investigating the cause of the accident have concluded the crash was mainly caused by poorly trained pilots attempting to land in dense fog at Smolensk military airfield. The report was criticized by Law and Justice (PiS) party and its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother of late president. According to them it was not an accident, but an assassination concocted by the Russians and Lech Kaczynski's political foes. After winning the election in 2015 PiS formed its own commission that will repeat the investigation.

Tupolev Tu-154 crashed just short of the runway near Smolensk in western Russia, after it hit trees in heavy fog. The disaster happened as the president, his wife and top government officials were travelling to Katyn to commemorate thousands of Polish officers murdered by Soviet secret police in 1940.

Schedule:

1. Ceremonies in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw:
Live transmissions / broadcast services available

8.41 CET – ceremonies in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw

12.15-16.00 CET – Concerts and prayers in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw

16.50 CET – Statement of President Andrzej Duda and revealing of a plaque commemorating late president Lech Kaczynski

Approx. 20:00 CET - Memory March from the Warsaw Archcathedral to the Presidential Palace

21:00 CET – Statement of Jaroslaw Kaczynski – a twin brother of a late President Lech Kaczynski and a leader of the largest opposition party Law and Justice

All day – view at the square in front of the Presidential Palace

2. Ceremonies at the Powazki cemetery (at the Monument to the victims of the Smolensk air crash):
Live transmission / broadcast services available

8.20 CET – beginning of the ceremonies with families of the victims, representatives of the government, Warsaw residents

- Prayers, reading the names of victims, lighting candles, laying wreaths

8.42 CET – the end of the ceremonies

3. 7:30 CET - Laying flowers by the commemorative plaques in Polish Parliament

4. 14:45 CET - Mass at the Temple of Divine Providence
Live transmission

5. 19:00 CET – Mass at the the Warsaw Archcathedral

Bookings:
+48 22 453 6162
+48 22 453 6194
booking@tvn.pl