Lech Kaczynski and Katyn

Tragedy upon tragedy.

MOSCOW, April 10 (AP) -- Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's military and civilian leaders died Saturday as their airplane went down in thick fog while approaching to land at Smolensk airport in western Russia, the Associated Press and other media reported.

Russian emergency minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted by Russia's Itar- Tass news agency as saying that 97 people aboard the Tupolev-154 had died in the crash and that the plane's black boxes have been found.

...Kaczynski, 60, was en route to a memorial service for the 70th anniversary of a massacre in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk, in which around 20,000 members of the Polish military and intellectual elite were killed by Soviet agents.

Kaczynski, born on June 18, 1949, in Warsaw, served as mayor of the Polish capital before being elected president in 2005. He was in charge of national security under former Polish President Lech Walesa.

A presidential election will be held within the next 74 days.

The Polish Army chief of staff, Gen. Franciszek Gagor, National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremoer were on the passenger list as well, according to the AP.

Some of those who died in the crash of Poland's presidential plane, according to the Law and Justice Party, founded by President Lech Kaczynshi.

Lech Kaczysnki -- Polish president

Maria Kaczynska -- The president's wife

Ryszard Kaczorowski -- last president of the anti-Communist government-in-exile in London, 1989-90. The government-in-exile was set up after the prewar Warsaw government was forced to flee the Nazis in 1939.

Aleksander Szczyglo -- head of the National Security Office and former defense minister

Pawel Wypych -- presidential aide

Mariusz Handzlik -- presidential aide

Jerzy Szmajdzinski -- deputy parliament speaker and former defense minister

Andrzej Kremer -- Deputy Foreign Minister

Gen. Franciszek Gagor -- head of the army chief of staff

Andrzej Przewoznik -- minister in charge of WWII memorials

Slawomir Skrzypek -- head of the National Bank of Poland

Janusz Kurtyka -- head of the National Remembrance Institute, a state body that investigates communist-era crimes

Przemyslaw Gosiewski -- lawmaker

Zbigniew Wassermann -- lawmaker

Grzegorz Dolniak -- lawmaker

Janusz Kochanowski -- civil rights commissioner

Bishop Tadeusz Ploski -- army chaplain

Pope Benedict offers condolences.

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