Poland: Military plane crash kills 20 after air-safety meeting

Twenty members of the Polish military were killed on their way back from a flight-safety conference when their plane crashed in a wooded area.

Prime minister Donald Tusk said today the plane crashed as it was about to land last night. The victims included a brigadier general and four crew members.

“Soldiers, husbands, and fathers have died, and that is the most tragic result of this catastrophe,” said Mr Tusk, who rushed to the site of the accident.

Polish media described the accident as one of the worst military disasters in more than 30 years. President Lech Kaczynski, on a visit to Croatia, was cutting short his trip to return to Poland today, a spokesman said.

The air force plane carrying 16 passengers and four crew was approaching an air force runway at Miroslawiec shortly after 7pm local time (6pm Irish time) when it crashed in a forested area.

The aircraft, a Spanish-built CASA C-295M military transport plane, was about two miles from the airstrip when it clipped trees on its approach, crashed into a wooded area and burst into flames. Officials did not say what caused the crash.

The plane originally had more people on board when it took off from Warsaw, but had already landed at three other military airports – Powidz, Poznan and Krzesiny – to return soldiers to their home bases. It had two more planned stops to make, in Swidwin and Krakow.

Mr Tusk said it was ominous that the victims “were returning to their units from a conference devoted ... to flight safety”.

Among those killed were Brig Gen Andrzej Andrzejewski, commander of an air brigade based in Swidwin, as well as the commander of the Miroslawiec air base, Lt Jerzy Pilat.