One of the major international news stories of this year took place was the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash. The article I read was from El Periodico on April 10th, the day after the crash took place. In addition to the death of the President, his wife, several senior members of the Polish government and 96 total individuals were killed in the plane crash. According to the article, fog and low visibility were main contributing factors to the plane crash, as it was less than 300 meters. As a result, the plane collided two kilometers away from the targeted airport runway, landing in the Russian city of Smolensk west of Moscow. While the extreme weather conditions obviously led to the death of all of these individuals, one of the bigger questions is why the plane even took off in the first place. According to the article, the Russians offered drivers as alternatives to flying in such adverse conditions, but the Polish President insisted on flying. This struck me as surprising; if this was President Obama I feel like there would be no way that United States officials would put him in harm’s way if there was the slightest of unusual weather conditions. This was certainly a tragic event as so many lives were lost, but the worst part is that it could have been avoided. I cannot understand why the President felt the need to fly even if driving may have taken much longer. This is an extremely saddening event as so many lives were lost, and hopefully it will lead other nations to proceed with caution. If it indeed was the case that the President forced the issue with such dreadful conditions, this could serve as a reminder to the rest of the world’s leaders that it is unnecessary to put themselves in unnecessary risk.
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