Reuters breaks news that plane carrying Poland's president crashed

Reuters broke the news on April 10 that a plane carrying Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski, the central bank head, Poland’s military chief and many other figures from the ruling elite had crashed on its approach to Smolensk airport in Russia. The Reuters alert at 0823 GMT came from our reporter in Smolensk who got the news from Polish officials on the ground minutes after the plane crashed. We were alone with the news for more than 10 minutes, with Russian media relying on our reporting for some time before getting their own sources on the incident. The crash, which killed 97 people, dealt a shocking blow to Poland’s body politic and the opposition party headed by Kaczynski’s brother Jaroslaw. Analysis pieces produced by Reuters on April 10 and 11 looked at how the deaths would shift Polish politics, affect the decisions of the central bank and play into a warming of relations with Russia.