The Polish presidential aircraft, a Tupolev-154, was attempting to land at Severny airport in Smolensk in thick fog, a Russian investigative committee reports. It crashed 300-400 meters off the landing path 11am Moscow time, Itar-Tass news agency reports, citing sources in Russia’s Emergencies Ministry.

It’s reported that the pilot had ignored warnings not to land the TU-154 plane in foggy conditions and made four attempts to land before crashing, Polish television station Polsat reports.

Air traffic control in Belarus had apparently warned the captain to land in Minsk.

Bad weather, human error and mechanical fault are considered as possible reasons behind the crash, Russia’s investigative committee reports. The plane was piloted by a Polish crew from the presidential air unit.

Former test pilot Magomed Tolboev told RT that of all the crashes in which the TU-154 aircraft has been involved, only 10 per cent were caused by technical problems. “It’s a very secure plane” Tolboev assured.

A flight data recorder has been recovered at the crash site, a Smolensk region administration source reports.

There are reportedly no survivors of the crash, Smolensk region governor, Sergey Antufyev said, speaking to Russia’s Vesti-24 news channel.

“At landing the presidential plane didn’t make it to the runway. Preliminary information has it that the plane became caught on the tops of the trees, crashed and disintegrated. There are no survivors of this crash,” Antufyev said.

The governor specified there were 85 people from the presidential delegation and the flight crew on board the aircraft.

Lech Kaczynski with his wife (AFP Photo / Janek Skarzynski / Files)

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry say there were 88 members of the presidential entourage and eight crew members on board.

The head of Poland's Central Bank, the deputy Foreign Minister and the Army Chief of Staff reported to have been among the passengers.

Earlier Russia’s Investigative committee reported there were 132 people at the plane.

Law enforcement officials in Smolensk region confirm there were no survivors of the crash, Itar-Tass news agency reports.

“At 10:50 am, connection with the TU-154 was broken on a flight from Warsaw to Smolensk. According to our reports, all have died. This was the plane of the official Polish delegation,” said Irina Andrianova, Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesperson.

Martin Voitovski, a journalist from the Polish presidential pool who is at the scene, has given RT his account of the tragedy.

“In Katyn, a memorial ceremony was about to start and all were waiting for the president. Journalists had arrived an hour earlier by another plane. We learned about the presidential plane having problems. We arrived at the airport and learned that the TU-154 could not land because of the heavy fog. The plane was advised to land in Minsk and all the delegation would go by vehicles to Katyn, but the pilot decided that they would land here, at Smolensk military airport. The plane just crashed,” he said.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has set up a state commission, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to investigate the accident.

“A tragedy happened. Russia’s President and the head of the Government have been speaking to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressing our condolences to him and all the Polish people and the relatives of those who died. We have created a government commission to investigate the causes of this tragedy. We’ll be doing our best to resolve all the issues as soon as possible,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Russian Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoigu and Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin are heading to the crash site.

“There is no doubt that Russia and Poland will continue co-operating on the investigation of all the circumstances of this tragedy,” Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s envoy to NATO assured.

Russian State Duma Deputy Vladimir Pligin says the investigation will involve all possible measures and will be transparent.

“No doubt the investigation will not be a top-secret investigation. It’s a big tragedy for both the people of Poland and the people of Russia, and all of us are interested in an open and professional investigation.”

Meanwhile Poland will conduct its own investigation into the accident independently from Russia, the Polish Prosecutor General said.

Watch interview with RT’s political commentator Peter Lavelle, who knew President Lech Kaczynski personally.

Monday, April 12th has been an announced the day of mourning in Russia.

A seven-day period of mourning has been announced in Poland to honour the victims of the crash.

Bronislaw Komorowski, Marshal of the Sejm of Poland, has assumed the title of Acting President. According to the constitution, he has two weeks to announce the date of presidential elections.

Guiletto Chiesa, journalist and former member of the European Parliament, says the new leadership may entirely reconfigure the future of Poland’s relationship with Russia and the EU.

“It was clear that President Kaczynski was strongly anti-Russian and for that reason he had large support inside Poland for a long time. But [he] was also a problem for the EU because of his distrust for [Russia.],” Chiesa explained.

A man with strong views

Lech Kazcynski was a leader of Poland's conservative movement, and far from an easy partner for Russia over the years.

The Polish president was 60 years old and had been in office since 2005. For one of those years, he actually shared power with his identical twin brother, who was briefly Prime Minister of Poland.

Before that he was the mayor of the capital, Warsaw, for three years.

Polish Embassy in Moscow (RIA Novosti)

Kaczynski was strongly critical of Russia, contributing largely to a deterioration in relations between Moscow and Warsaw.

From 1989 onwards, Lech Kaczynski had often used anti-Communist rhetoric, insisting those involved in what he considered Communist crimes should be prosecuted.

Both Kaczynski brothers pushed for a strong military alliance with the United States – a stance which often led to clashes with Moscow and Germany.

And following Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia in 2008, Kaczynsky went to Tbilisi to show his support for President Mikhail Saakashvili.

One of his most controversial moves came as mayor however. He was behind a decision to rename a Warsaw square after Dzhokhar Dudaev, the leader of Chechen militants fighting against Russian forces.

On the domestic front, Kaczynski tried to combine modernization alongside his traditional values, and was a close ally of the first Polish President Lech Walesa.

Kaczynski's wife, Maria, who also died in the crash, was an economist. They leave behind a daughter, Marta, and two granddaughters.