United in grief

TRIBUTE . . . Standard bearer Bohdan Kolakowski and his colleagues from the Polish Ex-Combatants Association pay their respects

Shock and sadness haunts Poles after plane crash horror

OLDHAM’S Polish community joined a nation in mourning following the horror plane crash which killed President Lech Kaczynski.

The accident, on Saturday, claimed the lives of all 96 people on board, including the president, his wife Maria and dozens of Poland’s political and military elite.

More than 100 mourners piled into Oldham’s St Patrick’s Church yesterday afternoon for a special mass to pay tribute to all those who died in the tragedy, which happened in thick fog at a military airport close to the western Russian city of Smolensk.

The plane was on its way to a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which more than 22,000 Poles were slaughtered by the Soviet secret police during the Second World War.

Witnesses said the aircraft slammed into the ground and exploded after it clipped trees while coming in to land.

The president’s body arrived home last night at the country’s presidential palace as a sea of candles held by mourners glowed outside the building. Poland has now declared a week of national mourning.

In Oldham, the Polish community reacted with shock and grief at St Patrick’s in Union Street West.

Bohdan Kolakowski, chairman of the Polish Ex-Combatants Association, said: “It’s terrible. The Polish community here in Oldham is very sad. We just can’t come to terms with what has happened.”

Yesterday’s mass was due to be held in memory of Mr Kolakowski’s father who died many years ago in Russia.

“I asked the Father to postpone it and hold mass instead for all those people who tragically lost their lives on Saturday,” he said.

“What is also sad is that among the victims was the last Polish president to be exiled, he was 90 years old.”

Jan Mokrzycki, vice-chairman of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, said: “It’s an awful co-incidence that this should have happened in a place which already holds such awful memories for us.

“People are shocked, but it has united everybody in grief.”

A book of condolence has been opened at the Polish Embassy in London’s Portland Place.