What if #9

What if your entire ruling party died in a plane crash. This leaves you with little left to rule your country. It would be a sad day in your country. Well, all of this happened to Poland not even 7 hours ago. A plane carrying the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and his wife crashed in Russia while traveling to Katyn. Katyn was the site of a massacre of Polish prisoners of war by the Russians in 1940. The plane was full of the President's top cabinet and many war veterans going to Katyn to commemorate the many that died that sad day in 1940. "With a single swipe, the plane crash that killed the President gutted a nation's leadership and silenced some of the most potent human symbols of its tragic and tumultuous history(Stack, NY Times)." The fact that the crash occurred on Russian soil already opens up old wounds between the two countries. Among the 97 killed in the crash were the army chief of staff, the head of the National Security Office, the national bank president, the deputy foreign minister, the deputy parliament speaker, the civil rights commissioner, and members of parliament. The flight was a 26 year old Soviet-designed plane full of iconic Polish figures headed to a Catholic Mass to honor the 70th anniversary of the deaths at Katyn. The flight crashed due to fog on the ground and a hurried Polish aircrew who wanted to land in Smolensk due to time constraints. The Russians warned the pilots to not attempt to land in Smolensk, but the pilots continued anyway. The plane never reached the runway, it flew into trees before the runway, the plane was torn apart and there were no survivors.