Polish president and first lady lie in state as plans for state funeral are unveiled
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 4:29 PM on 13th April 2010
Poland's president and first lady will be buried this Sunday in a state funeral at the the historic resting place of the country's kings and former leaders, Krakow's Wawel Cathedral.
Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria Kaczynska, were among 96 people killed Saturday in a plane crash in Western Russia. Investigators are pointing at human error as the cause.
Stanislaw Kracik, Krakow province governor, said the presidential couple will receive a funeral at 2pm on Sunday in the 1,000-year-old cathedral.
The last Polish leader killed in office, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, the exiled World War II leader who perished in a mysterious plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943, is also interred there.
A front window of the hearse carrying the remains of late Polish First Lady Maria Kaczynska is covered with flowers in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw today
A Poland flag flutters in the wind as a procession with the coffin of first lady Maria Kaczynska makes its way to the Presidential Palace
Leaders expected for the funeral include Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
Kaczynska's body was flown home from Russia this morning, and Parliament held a special observance in memory of the president and lawmakers who killed in the plane crash.
Her body, in a coffin draped with Poland's white-and-red flag, arrived in a military CASA plane shortly after 10.30am at Warsaw's Okecie airport.
It was met by Kaczynska's only child, Marta, and by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, her brother-in-law who was also the twin of the late president.
Her daughter knelt by the casket and wept as a Polish honour guard stood by silently.
Kaczynska's body was then ferried to the Presidential Palace in the back of a Mercedes-Benz hearse, just like her husband's was on Sunday. Thousands of Warsaw residents lined the route.
Write caption here The daughter of the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Marta, kneels in front of the coffin with her mother, the President's wife Maria, as Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw stands beside, during a ceremony at the airport
'I'm here because it's such a tragedy for Poland,' said Maja Jelenicka, 63. 'I'm in despair. I feel as if I've lost a close relative. Maria Kaczynska was a wonderful woman, kind, with a heart of gold and a real first lady.'
The bodies of the first couple are lying in state in closed coffins in the Columned Hall of the Presidential Palace.
The body of Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last president of Poland's government-in-exile in London, will be brought back on Wednesday and his coffin will also be put on public display, said Senate Speaker Bogdan Borusewicz, the top lawmaker in the Polish senate.
Investigators have suggested that human error may have been to blame in Saturday's crash that killed the Polish president and 95 others, saying on Monday there were no technical problems with the Soviet-made plane.
The Tu-154 went down while trying to land in dense fog at Smolensk in western Russia.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski, stands next to empty chairs with pictures of victims of Saturday's Tu-154 plane crash
Mourners kneel at the coffins of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria that were lying in state at the Presidential Palace today
All aboard were killed, including Kaczynski and dozens of Polish political, military and religious leaders.
They had been traveling in the Polish government-owned plane to attend a memorial in the nearby Katyn forest for thousands of Polish military officers executed 70 years ago by Josef Stalin's secret police.
The pilot had been warned of bad weather in Smolensk, and was advised by traffic controllers to land elsewhere - which would have delayed the Katyn observances.
He was identified as Captain Arkadiusz Protasiuk, 36, and the co-pilot as Major Robert Grzywna, 36. Also in the cockpit were Ensign Andrzej Michalak, 36, and Lieutenant Artur Zietek, 31.
Russian traffic controllers said the crew refused to follow their recommendations, a popular Russian daily reported.
A member of the Polish Parliament reacts during a memorial service at the Parliament building in Warsaw
Mourners emerge carrying portraits of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria after viewing their coffins in state at the Presidential Palace
Former Polish Presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski (front row R), Lech Walesa (C) and Polish officials attend a memorial service at the Parliament building in Warsaw
Traffic controller Anatoly Muravyev, who was part of the team that handled the plane, told Komsomolskaya Pravda that the crew ignored their warnings about worsening weather at the Smolensk airport.
The crew 'started landing with confidence and with no swerving,' Muravyev was quoted as saying. 'But then the traffic controllers had doubts (about the weather).'
He said the head controller three times ordered the plane to re-attempt the landing and then advised the pilot to fly to another airport.
'The crew did not listen, although the controllers warned them about bad visibility and told them to get ready to fly to a reserve airport,' he said.
Polish Prosecutor General Andrzej Seremet said that Polish prosecutors were still reviewing data from the flight recorders and would discuss their findings on Thursday when Chief Military Prosecutor Krzysztof Parulski returned to the country this week.
So far, 87 bodies have been recovered and 40 of them identified, Seremet said.
Russian Interior Ministry soldiers secures the site near the wreckage of the Polish presidential plane, that crashed Saturday just outside the Smolensk airport, western Russia
President Lech Kaczynski and his wife died along with 94 other people

The bodies of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and first lady Maria Kaczynska are lying in state ahead of their funeral on Sunday. The couple died along with 94 other people when the plane they were travelling in crashed in Russia. They will be buried after a memorial to the crash victims. 

President Kaczynski’s body was repatriated from Russia on Sunday while the first lady’s was flown to Warsaw airport on Tuesday. Kaczynska’s coffin was driven to the Presidential Palace while draped in Poland’s flag. Thousands of mourners lined the six mile route as her coffin was transported. The first couple will be buried at Wawel Castle on Sunday. 

Both chambers of parliament held special sessions to honour the crash victims. Poland is currently in seven days of mourning while Russia held a day of mourning on Monday.

The couple were travelling to Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre when their plane clipped trees and crashed in Smolensk, Russia. The couple died along with many other senior politicians and military commanders. Other victims included the president of the central bank of Poland, the head of the Polish Olympic Committee and last President of Poland, from the Polish government-in-exile which existed in London during the Nazi and Communist period, Ryszard Kaczorowski. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to attend the funeral. President of the United States Barack Obama and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper have both announced that they will also attend.