Polish-Canadian Journalist Was To Be On Plane That Crashed

Marek Goldyn’s tardiness saved his life.

The Toronto journalist and publisher of Polonez, a Polish-Canadian newspaper, was late filing his media request to attend the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish soldiers in Russia’s Katyn forest.

But had he been successful, he would have been on the flight that crashed on Saturday en route from Warsaw and killed Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of top officials.

“I wanted to go. I applied for the press accreditation,” Goldyn said.

“I don’t want to be symbolic. I’ve met four people who died … on the plane. It’s on a human level. [But] sometimes you think it happens for a reason.”

Mourners have been paying their respects to their president, who will lie in state until a funeral this weekend.

And tributes are being held around the world, including a moment of silence at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Here in Canada, Premier Dalton McGuinty issued a statement to the GTA’s 225,000 Polish-Canadians and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has designated Thursday a national day of mourning for Kaczynski.

“People are crying and there is a sense of deep loss,” Goldyn said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin is heading up the investigation into why the plane crashed. There was thick fog at the time and officials say the pilot was ordered to divert to Minsk or Moscow.

There is some speculation Kaczynski may have ordered the pilot to land anyway.

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