first lady and many other dignitaries and many other members of the polish government. live picture here you re seeing out of poland here. lost all of those members after a plane crash, around 3:00 eastern time. apparently tough weather there. a lot of fog and the plane was trying to land and clipped some trees, are the initial reports and crashed killing at least 89 people onboard. you re seeing the scene of the wreckage that we got just a short time ago. again, the news for poland is that they lost their leader, the first lady as well, and the reports we re getting is that the place, the polish people are literally in shock at this point. you heard donald tusk there, the prime minister, talking about the biggest issue right now they re having, of course, is that this is a big tragedy for the families. he says they already have people on the ground, some of their own polish investigators on the ground looking into this. the government he tried to assure everyone have been meeting and
military, a number of other polish dignitaries who died after a plane crashed as it tried to get into western russia this morning. this happened at about 11:00 a.m. local time there, in heavy fog. the plane clipped trees trying to land, there to honor killed polish fighters from world war ii. this comes at a time of certainly some discussion that was going on as russia and poland tried to work towards reconciling over this issue. now a nation in mourning. we ll be following this, bringing you the very latest ahead here on cnn saturday morning.
you join in the mourning process today for this man who was beloved by many around the world. guys, back to you. josh, appreciate it. checking in soon. this crash actually happened as the plane was approaching an airport in western russia and apparently happening in a heavy fog. there may have been visibility issues, obviously. cnn s phil black is watching all of the developments. phil what are you hearing about the circumstances ever this? reporter: brianna, certainly heavy fog seems to be an early indicator in terms of what nay have just lapped to this plane. we do know it was on final approach to a landing at an air strip in western russia. we believe a military air strip and what happened precisely, well, the pictures speak for themselves, really. you re seeing debris strewn over a wide area through heavily wooded parts just near the an area just near the runway there. it appears that the aircraft had struck those trees, and witnesses have spoken about a
anniversary commemoration of the deaths of thousands of polish soldiers when it crashed in heavy fog. we re also going it look at some live pictures coming in from warsaw, poland. this is a nation in absolute shock. they are in mourning. this is just one vigil that is going on there in warsaw and we ll bring you the latest ahead. also, politicians from both parties reacting to supreme court justice john paul stevens decision to retire. the next half hour of cnn saturday morning, an in dep-de how this will affect the nation s top court.
city of molink, in russia. a government spokesman said poland will hold an early presidential election untiling the death of the president. there is photographs of the president in the square in war saw, poland. we ll have more on the developing story including a live report from pol land. we spoke to the reporter in war saw it appears at this point, according to the reports he is hearing that it my have been pilot error and clipped the tree tops. heavy fog. it was an old aircraft. 20 years old. it is shocking how many leaders of government have been kill would in this. head of the armed fores and head of the national security council. we ll update you throughout the morning .