Police Seek Man Taped Near Bomb Scene
Law enforcement officials offered a more detailed description of the makeup of the failed car bomb found in Times Square on Saturday night, and said they were reviewing surveillance footage that showed a white man who appeared to be in his 40s walking away from the area as he looked over his shoulder and removed a layer of clothing.
Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday that the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder — gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks — also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be nonexplosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker.
The bomb, Mr. Kelly said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.”
Had it exploded, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse.”
While the authorities said they were treating the failed bombing — described as a “one-off” by Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary — as a potential terrorist attack, they said there was no evidence of a continued threat to the city.
Additional patrols will be placed in Midtown, Mr. Kelly said, but no significant increase in the city’s police presence was planned.
F.B.I. agents and detectives had identified and were seeking to interview the owner of the Pathfinder, which was traced to Connecticut. The owner’s name was not made public.
No motive had been determined in the attempted bombing, and federal and local officials said there was no evidence to support a claim of responsibility issued Sunday by a Pakistani Taliban group that has a reputation for making far-fetched attempts to take credit for attacks.
The police and F.B.I. officials are also investigating a separate tip received by a news organization, but Mr. Kelly said it had not turned up any suspects.
Investigators were reviewing surveillance footage that showed an unidentified man walking away from West 45th Street, where the Nissan Pathfinder had been parked. The man was seen in Shubert Alley, which runs between 44th and 45th Streets, looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath, officials said. The man then stuffed the dark shirt into a bag, officials said.
Asked if he considered the failed bombing the work of terrorists, Mr. Kelly said: “A terrorist act doesn’t necessarily have to be conducted by an organization. An individual can do it on their own.”
Mr. Kelly held his briefing as Times Square experienced an uneasy return to normalcy after a night of high drama that saw the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers. All Broadway shows ran as scheduled on Sunday, playing on streets where, just hours before, onlookers watched behind orange netting as a police bomb squad used a robot to break into the smoke-filled Pathfinder, which was discovered about 6:30 p.m.
Two street vendors had flagged down a mounted police officer after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly at the curb with its engine running and its flashers on. The area was cleared so police could examine the sport utility vehicle, which was first seen on video surveillance cameras at 6:28 p.m., heading west on West 45th Street.
The Pathfinder was brought to a forensics center in Jamaica, Queens, where investigators were scouring it for DNA evidence and hairs, fibers and fingerprints. No fingerprints have yet been found, officials said, but the analysis was still in its early stages.
F.B.I. agents and detectives from the Joint Terrorist Task Force were also trying to determine where the three canisters of propane and two red plastic five-gallon containers of gasoline in the Pathfinder had been purchased.
The gun locker, which weighed about 75 pounds empty and upward of 200 pounds with the eight bags of fertilizer in it, could provide important clues because it was likely to be more easily traced than many of the other items found in the S.U.V.
The weight of the locker and the material inside raised questions as to whether it might have required more than one person to load it into the vehicle.
Identifying the owner of the Pathfinder — an important development, according to one official — was achieved through the S.U.V.’s vehicle identification number, which had been stripped from the car’s dashboard but was stamped on other car parts, like the engine block and axle.
Initially, investigators believed the last owner was in Texas and had donated the car to a charity in North Carolina, one official said. But that information proved to be incorrect.
The license plate on the S.U.V. was connected to a different vehicle that was awaiting repairs in Stratford, Conn., where F.B.I. agents and the local police awoke the owner of the repair shop at 3 a.m. Sunday.
The shop owner, Wayne LeBlanc, who runs Kramer’s Used Auto Parts, said that the authorities had seized a black Ford F-150 pickup truck. “We’re trying to help them identify who took the plates,” he said.
The S.U.V. had no E-ZPass tag, but license plate readers and cameras at the area’s tollbooths were being checked to determine where the car had entered Manhattan, one official said.
Most of the ingredients of the explosive device could have been bought at a home-supply store. The canisters of propane were similar to those used for barbecue grills. The firecrackers were consumer-grade M-88s sold legally in some states, including Pennsylvania.
The device was found in the back of the S.U.V., Mr. Kelly said, with the gasoline cans closest to the back seat and the gun locker behind them. The fertilizer was in clear plastic bags bearing the logo of a store that the police declined to identify.
The wires from battery-powered fluorescent clocks ran into the gun locker, where a metal pressure-cooker pot contained a thicket of wires and more M-88s, Mr. Kelly said.
“The detonation device, it was believed that the timers would ignite the can of explosives, and that would cause the five-gallon cans to go on fire and then explode the propane tanks and have some effect on that rifle box,” Mr. Kelly said.
Investigators believed that the fuses on the firecrackers had been lighted, but they did not explode, officials said. The burning fuses apparently ignited a portion of the Pathfinder’s interior, causing a small fire that filled the inside with smoke, one law enforcement official said.
Another official said that pops heard by a firefighter as he approached the vehicle might have been made by the fireworks failing to fully detonate.
Investigators were reviewing similarities between the incident in Times Square and coordinated attacks in the summer of 2007 at a Glasgow airport and a London neighborhood of nightclubs and theaters. Both attacks involved cars containing propane and gasoline that did not explode. Those attacks, the authorities believed, had their roots in Iraq.
“You can find similarities among different attacks, but there is nothing that we have at this point that has established that link,” Mr. Browne said.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that “so far, there is no evidence that any of this has anything to do with one of the recognized terrorist organizations.”
Meanwhile, a Homeland Security official said that the Transportation Security Administration had increased security outside airports to counter threats like car bombs.
The agency held a conference call Sunday night with federal officials at airports in the New York City region to discuss increased security at departure gates.
The authorities said they are studying hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from more than 80 cameras, including images of the man leaving the scene of the S.U.V. that were shot by a tourist in Times Square. Detectives flew by helicopter to Pennsylvania to interview the tourist.
The police and F.B.I. officials were also investigating a 911 call placed around 4 a.m. Sunday that described the failed bombing as a diversion before a bigger explosion, two law enforcement officials said, although Mr. Kelly said there was no record of that call.
The S.U.V. was parked near the headquarters of Viacom, fueling suspicions that the attack was related to a controversy surrounding “South Park,” the Comedy Central cartoon program that recently censored an episode that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad. Viacom owns Comedy Central, and police have not ruled out the connection.
Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday that the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder — gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks — also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be nonexplosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker.
The bomb, Mr. Kelly said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.”
Had it exploded, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse.”
While the authorities said they were treating the failed bombing — described as a “one-off” by Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary — as a potential terrorist attack, they said there was no evidence of a continued threat to the city.
Additional patrols will be placed in Midtown, Mr. Kelly said, but no significant increase in the city’s police presence was planned.
F.B.I. agents and detectives had identified and were seeking to interview the owner of the Pathfinder, which was traced to Connecticut. The owner’s name was not made public.
No motive had been determined in the attempted bombing, and federal and local officials said there was no evidence to support a claim of responsibility issued Sunday by a Pakistani Taliban group that has a reputation for making far-fetched attempts to take credit for attacks.
The police and F.B.I. officials are also investigating a separate tip received by a news organization, but Mr. Kelly said it had not turned up any suspects.
Investigators were reviewing surveillance footage that showed an unidentified man walking away from West 45th Street, where the Nissan Pathfinder had been parked. The man was seen in Shubert Alley, which runs between 44th and 45th Streets, looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath, officials said. The man then stuffed the dark shirt into a bag, officials said.
Asked if he considered the failed bombing the work of terrorists, Mr. Kelly said: “A terrorist act doesn’t necessarily have to be conducted by an organization. An individual can do it on their own.”
Mr. Kelly held his briefing as Times Square experienced an uneasy return to normalcy after a night of high drama that saw the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers. All Broadway shows ran as scheduled on Sunday, playing on streets where, just hours before, onlookers watched behind orange netting as a police bomb squad used a robot to break into the smoke-filled Pathfinder, which was discovered about 6:30 p.m.
Two street vendors had flagged down a mounted police officer after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly at the curb with its engine running and its flashers on. The area was cleared so police could examine the sport utility vehicle, which was first seen on video surveillance cameras at 6:28 p.m., heading west on West 45th Street.
The Pathfinder was brought to a forensics center in Jamaica, Queens, where investigators were scouring it for DNA evidence and hairs, fibers and fingerprints. No fingerprints have yet been found, officials said, but the analysis was still in its early stages.
F.B.I. agents and detectives from the Joint Terrorist Task Force were also trying to determine where the three canisters of propane and two red plastic five-gallon containers of gasoline in the Pathfinder had been purchased.
The gun locker, which weighed about 75 pounds empty and upward of 200 pounds with the eight bags of fertilizer in it, could provide important clues because it was likely to be more easily traced than many of the other items found in the S.U.V.
The weight of the locker and the material inside raised questions as to whether it might have required more than one person to load it into the vehicle.
Identifying the owner of the Pathfinder — an important development, according to one official — was achieved through the S.U.V.’s vehicle identification number, which had been stripped from the car’s dashboard but was stamped on other car parts, like the engine block and axle.
Initially, investigators believed the last owner was in Texas and had donated the car to a charity in North Carolina, one official said. But that information proved to be incorrect.
The license plate on the S.U.V. was connected to a different vehicle that was awaiting repairs in Stratford, Conn., where F.B.I. agents and the local police awoke the owner of the repair shop at 3 a.m. Sunday.
The shop owner, Wayne LeBlanc, who runs Kramer’s Used Auto Parts, said that the authorities had seized a black Ford F-150 pickup truck. “We’re trying to help them identify who took the plates,” he said.
The S.U.V. had no E-ZPass tag, but license plate readers and cameras at the area’s tollbooths were being checked to determine where the car had entered Manhattan, one official said.
Most of the ingredients of the explosive device could have been bought at a home-supply store. The canisters of propane were similar to those used for barbecue grills. The firecrackers were consumer-grade M-88s sold legally in some states, including Pennsylvania.
The device was found in the back of the S.U.V., Mr. Kelly said, with the gasoline cans closest to the back seat and the gun locker behind them. The fertilizer was in clear plastic bags bearing the logo of a store that the police declined to identify.
The wires from battery-powered fluorescent clocks ran into the gun locker, where a metal pressure-cooker pot contained a thicket of wires and more M-88s, Mr. Kelly said.
“The detonation device, it was believed that the timers would ignite the can of explosives, and that would cause the five-gallon cans to go on fire and then explode the propane tanks and have some effect on that rifle box,” Mr. Kelly said.
Investigators believed that the fuses on the firecrackers had been lighted, but they did not explode, officials said. The burning fuses apparently ignited a portion of the Pathfinder’s interior, causing a small fire that filled the inside with smoke, one law enforcement official said.
Another official said that pops heard by a firefighter as he approached the vehicle might have been made by the fireworks failing to fully detonate.
Investigators were reviewing similarities between the incident in Times Square and coordinated attacks in the summer of 2007 at a Glasgow airport and a London neighborhood of nightclubs and theaters. Both attacks involved cars containing propane and gasoline that did not explode. Those attacks, the authorities believed, had their roots in Iraq.
“You can find similarities among different attacks, but there is nothing that we have at this point that has established that link,” Mr. Browne said.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that “so far, there is no evidence that any of this has anything to do with one of the recognized terrorist organizations.”
Meanwhile, a Homeland Security official said that the Transportation Security Administration had increased security outside airports to counter threats like car bombs.
The agency held a conference call Sunday night with federal officials at airports in the New York City region to discuss increased security at departure gates.
The authorities said they are studying hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from more than 80 cameras, including images of the man leaving the scene of the S.U.V. that were shot by a tourist in Times Square. Detectives flew by helicopter to Pennsylvania to interview the tourist.
The police and F.B.I. officials were also investigating a 911 call placed around 4 a.m. Sunday that described the failed bombing as a diversion before a bigger explosion, two law enforcement officials said, although Mr. Kelly said there was no record of that call.
The S.U.V. was parked near the headquarters of Viacom, fueling suspicions that the attack was related to a controversy surrounding “South Park,” the Comedy Central cartoon program that recently censored an episode that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad. Viacom owns Comedy Central, and police have not ruled out the connection.
Test flights raise hope for European air traffic
Dutch airline KLM said overnight inspection of an airliner after a test flight showed no damage to engines or other parts from ash in the atmosphere. Lufthansa also reported problem-free test flights, while Italian and French carriers announced they would be flying empty airliners on Sunday to assess conditions.
For the moment, a clampdown on flights across much of Europe was strictly maintained, posing a growing problem for businesses including airlines, estimated to be losing $200 million a day, and thousands of travelers stranded worldwide.
Many countries closed their airspace until well into Sunday or Monday, and weather experts said wind patterns meant the cloud was not likely to move far until later in the week.
They said the dark grey plume rising from an Icelandic volcano and drifting southwards through the upper atmosphere could become more concentrated on Tuesday and Wednesday.
For some businesses dependent on the speed of air freight, the impact has been immediate.
Kenya's flower exporters said they were already losing up to $2 million a day because they had not been able to airlift their blooms. Kenya accounts for about a third of flower imports into the European Union.
Volcanic ash has an abrasive effect and can strip off vital aerodynamic surfaces and paralyze an aircraft engine. Aircraft avionics and electronics, as well as windshields, can also be damaged.
KLM, acting on a European Union request, flew a Boeing 737-800 without passengers at the regular altitude of 10 km (6 miles) and up to the 13 km maximum on Saturday. Germany's Lufthansa said it flew 10 empty planes to Frankfurt from Munich at altitudes of up to 8 km.
"We have not found anything unusual and no irregularities, which indicates the atmosphere is clean and safe to fly," said a spokeswoman for KLM, which is part of Air France-KLM.
German airline Air Berlin said it had also carried out test flights and expressed irritation at the shutdown of European air space.
"We are amazed that the results of the test flights done by Lufthansa and Air Berlin have not had any bearing on the decision-making of the air safety authorities," Chief Executive Joachim Hunold said.
"The closure of the air space happened purely because of the data of a computer simulation at the Vulcanic Ash Advisory Center in London," he told the mass circulation Bild am Sonntag paper.
The air travel disruption is the worst since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, when U.S. airspace was closed for three days and European airlines were forced to halt all transatlantic services.
WORLD LEADERS
The cloud has forced several world leaders to rearrange travel plans. U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others canceled trips to Poland for the funeral on Sunday of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, killed in a plane crash in Russia a week ago. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev went ahead with his flight to Krakow.
U.S.-based forecaster AccuWeather said the ash was in an area of weak wind flow and was unlikely to move far on Monday.
"The plume is expected to become more concentrated Tuesday and Wednesday, posing a greater threat to air travel. However, it is also expected to become narrower, impacting a smaller area," said AccuWeather.
It said an Atlantic storm and change in the direction of the jetstream on Thursday could break up the cloud.
Britain and Germany were among countries to declare their airspace closed late into Sunday. France was closing its last airports from 1200 GMT until at least Monday morning.
Economists say they stand by their models or predictions for European growth, hoping normal service can resume this week.
But in a worst-case scenario in which European airspace is closed for months, one economist estimated lost travel and tourism revenue alone could knock 1-2 percentage points off regional growth as long as it lasts. European growth had been predicted at 1-1.5 percent for 2010.
"That would mean a lot of European countries wouldn't get any growth this year," said Vanessa Rossi, senior economic fellow at Chatham House. "It would literally stifle the recovery. But the problem is it is incredibly hard to predict what will happen. Even the geologists can't tell us."
Airlines could suffer a severe financial blow.
British Airways, hit by strikes last month that cost it around $70 million, canceled all Sunday's flights.
Ireland's Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost carrier, has canceled all flights to and from northern European countries until 1200 GMT on Monday.
The fallout hit airline shares on Friday with Lufthansa, British Airways, Air Berlin, Air France-KLM, Iberia and Ryanair down between 1.4 and 3.0 percent.
Disruption spread to Asia, where dozens of Europe-bound flights were canceled and hotels from Beijing to Singapore strained to accommodate stranded passengers.
More than four in five flights by U.S. airlines to and from Europe were canceled on Saturday. Shipping company FedEx Corp said more than 100 FedEx Express flights headed to Europe were rerouted, diverted or canceled within the past 72 hours.
The volcano began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, hurling a plume of ash 6 to 11 km (3.7 to 6.9 miles) into the atmosphere.
(Reporting by London, Geneva, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Reykjavik, Washington, Frankfurt and Berlin newsrooms; Writing by Ralph Gowling and Ralph Boulton; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
For the moment, a clampdown on flights across much of Europe was strictly maintained, posing a growing problem for businesses including airlines, estimated to be losing $200 million a day, and thousands of travelers stranded worldwide.
Many countries closed their airspace until well into Sunday or Monday, and weather experts said wind patterns meant the cloud was not likely to move far until later in the week.
They said the dark grey plume rising from an Icelandic volcano and drifting southwards through the upper atmosphere could become more concentrated on Tuesday and Wednesday.
For some businesses dependent on the speed of air freight, the impact has been immediate.
Kenya's flower exporters said they were already losing up to $2 million a day because they had not been able to airlift their blooms. Kenya accounts for about a third of flower imports into the European Union.
Volcanic ash has an abrasive effect and can strip off vital aerodynamic surfaces and paralyze an aircraft engine. Aircraft avionics and electronics, as well as windshields, can also be damaged.
KLM, acting on a European Union request, flew a Boeing 737-800 without passengers at the regular altitude of 10 km (6 miles) and up to the 13 km maximum on Saturday. Germany's Lufthansa said it flew 10 empty planes to Frankfurt from Munich at altitudes of up to 8 km.
"We have not found anything unusual and no irregularities, which indicates the atmosphere is clean and safe to fly," said a spokeswoman for KLM, which is part of Air France-KLM.
German airline Air Berlin said it had also carried out test flights and expressed irritation at the shutdown of European air space.
"We are amazed that the results of the test flights done by Lufthansa and Air Berlin have not had any bearing on the decision-making of the air safety authorities," Chief Executive Joachim Hunold said.
"The closure of the air space happened purely because of the data of a computer simulation at the Vulcanic Ash Advisory Center in London," he told the mass circulation Bild am Sonntag paper.
The air travel disruption is the worst since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, when U.S. airspace was closed for three days and European airlines were forced to halt all transatlantic services.
WORLD LEADERS
The cloud has forced several world leaders to rearrange travel plans. U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others canceled trips to Poland for the funeral on Sunday of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, killed in a plane crash in Russia a week ago. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev went ahead with his flight to Krakow.
U.S.-based forecaster AccuWeather said the ash was in an area of weak wind flow and was unlikely to move far on Monday.
"The plume is expected to become more concentrated Tuesday and Wednesday, posing a greater threat to air travel. However, it is also expected to become narrower, impacting a smaller area," said AccuWeather.
It said an Atlantic storm and change in the direction of the jetstream on Thursday could break up the cloud.
Britain and Germany were among countries to declare their airspace closed late into Sunday. France was closing its last airports from 1200 GMT until at least Monday morning.
Economists say they stand by their models or predictions for European growth, hoping normal service can resume this week.
But in a worst-case scenario in which European airspace is closed for months, one economist estimated lost travel and tourism revenue alone could knock 1-2 percentage points off regional growth as long as it lasts. European growth had been predicted at 1-1.5 percent for 2010.
"That would mean a lot of European countries wouldn't get any growth this year," said Vanessa Rossi, senior economic fellow at Chatham House. "It would literally stifle the recovery. But the problem is it is incredibly hard to predict what will happen. Even the geologists can't tell us."
Airlines could suffer a severe financial blow.
British Airways, hit by strikes last month that cost it around $70 million, canceled all Sunday's flights.
Ireland's Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost carrier, has canceled all flights to and from northern European countries until 1200 GMT on Monday.
The fallout hit airline shares on Friday with Lufthansa, British Airways, Air Berlin, Air France-KLM, Iberia and Ryanair down between 1.4 and 3.0 percent.
Disruption spread to Asia, where dozens of Europe-bound flights were canceled and hotels from Beijing to Singapore strained to accommodate stranded passengers.
More than four in five flights by U.S. airlines to and from Europe were canceled on Saturday. Shipping company FedEx Corp said more than 100 FedEx Express flights headed to Europe were rerouted, diverted or canceled within the past 72 hours.
The volcano began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, hurling a plume of ash 6 to 11 km (3.7 to 6.9 miles) into the atmosphere.
(Reporting by London, Geneva, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Reykjavik, Washington, Frankfurt and Berlin newsrooms; Writing by Ralph Gowling and Ralph Boulton; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Poland mourns president, elite killed in crash
The aging Tupolev plane crashed in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia on Saturday, killing all 97 people on board. Kaczynski had been planning to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet forces in a nearby forest.
Tens of thousands of mourners thronged the streets of central Warsaw through the night into Sunday, turning the avenue in front of Kaczynski's palace into a sea of flowers and candles. In this staunchly Roman Catholic country, many sang hymns and prayed. Church doors stayed open for worshippers.
The chief of Poland's armed forces, the head of its navy, its central bank governor, opposition lawmakers and Kaczynski's wife Maria were among those killed in the crash.
"Today in the face of such a drama our nation stays united. There is no division into left and right, differences of views don't matter. We are together in the face of this tragedy," the parliamentary speaker, now Poland's acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski said in a televised address to the nation.
Komorowski declared a week of national mourning. Poles will observe two minutes of silence on Sunday at noon (4 a.m. EDT).
Despite Poles' deep sense of loss, analysts said the crash should not pose any serious threat to the political and economic stability of Poland, a staunch NATO ally of the United States and a member of the European Union.
RUSSIAN SOLIDARITY
World leaders expressed shock and sorrow. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia, Poland's historic foe, told Poles: "This is a tragedy for us too. We feel your pain."
President Barack Obama praised Kaczynski's role in the pro-democracy Solidarity movement that overthrew communism in 1989. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "Germany will miss Lech Kaczynski."
Komorowski said he would set the date of a presidential election which had been due in October after holding talks with Poland's political parties. Under the constitution the election must now be held by late June.
The mustachioed, bespectacled Komorowski, 58, is the presidential candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's ruling pro-business, pro-euro Civic Platform (PO). Opinion polls suggest he would have defeated Kaczynski in the election.
Tusk flew to the crash site late on Saturday, where he and Putin laid flowers together.
Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, leader of Poland's main opposition Law and Justice Party (PiS), also flew to the site to help identify the bodies.
The pilot of Kaczynski's plane ignored several orders not to land from air traffic control, the deputy chief of the Russian Air Force's general staff, Alexander Alyoshin, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Kaczynski, a combative nationalist often at odds with Tusk's centrist government and the EU, was a staunch critic of Putin's Russia. Putin had invited Tusk, not Kaczynski, to ceremonies last Wednesday marking the Katyn massacre anniversary.
Poles noted the irony of a crash that claimed the lives of so many members of Poland's elite near the spot where Josef Stalin's NKVD secret police shot dead some 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in 1940, wiping out much of the country's wartime leadership.
Putin and Tusk had pledged at their Katyn commemoration last week to work to overcome such painful historic memories.
In a further gesture of Russian solidarity, President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his condolences to the Polish nation on Saturday evening in an unprecedented television address. Russia has declared April 12 a day of mourning for the crash.
Russian television showed the smoldering fuselage and fragments of the plane scattered in a forest. A Reuters reporter saw a broken wing some distance from the rest of the aircraft.
The plane was one of two Tu-154s in the government fleet, both about 20 years old. Government officials had complained about the age of Poland's official fleet.
Poland and Russia both said they planned investigations into the causes of the crash.
CENTRAL BANK CONTINUITY
The conservative, nationalist-minded Kaczynski twins had spearheaded opposition to Tusk's pro-market economic policies and push for swift adoption of the euro. Analysts said they expected an upsurge of sympathy for PiS now but said it was too early to predict whether this would translate into votes.
Kaczynski was a one-time ally of Solidarity hero Lech Walesa and a co-founder of the right-wing PiS with his brother. He resigned from the party when he became president in 2005 but continued to support it.
While the president's role is largely symbolic, he can veto government laws. Kaczynski had infuriated Tusk's government several times by blocking health, media and pensions reforms.
Analysts said Polish markets would not be severely jolted.
"Although tragic, we do not believe that this event threatens political and financial stability in Poland in any fundamental way," Goldman Sachs said in a research note.
(Additional reporting by Robin Paxton, Guy Faulconbridge, Maria Kiselyova, Dmitry Sergeyev and Conor Humphries in Moscow; Agata Nalecz, Patryk Wasilewski, Chris Borowski and Gabriela Baczynska in Warsaw; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Tens of thousands of mourners thronged the streets of central Warsaw through the night into Sunday, turning the avenue in front of Kaczynski's palace into a sea of flowers and candles. In this staunchly Roman Catholic country, many sang hymns and prayed. Church doors stayed open for worshippers.
The chief of Poland's armed forces, the head of its navy, its central bank governor, opposition lawmakers and Kaczynski's wife Maria were among those killed in the crash.
"Today in the face of such a drama our nation stays united. There is no division into left and right, differences of views don't matter. We are together in the face of this tragedy," the parliamentary speaker, now Poland's acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski said in a televised address to the nation.
Komorowski declared a week of national mourning. Poles will observe two minutes of silence on Sunday at noon (4 a.m. EDT).
Despite Poles' deep sense of loss, analysts said the crash should not pose any serious threat to the political and economic stability of Poland, a staunch NATO ally of the United States and a member of the European Union.
RUSSIAN SOLIDARITY
World leaders expressed shock and sorrow. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia, Poland's historic foe, told Poles: "This is a tragedy for us too. We feel your pain."
President Barack Obama praised Kaczynski's role in the pro-democracy Solidarity movement that overthrew communism in 1989. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "Germany will miss Lech Kaczynski."
Komorowski said he would set the date of a presidential election which had been due in October after holding talks with Poland's political parties. Under the constitution the election must now be held by late June.
The mustachioed, bespectacled Komorowski, 58, is the presidential candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's ruling pro-business, pro-euro Civic Platform (PO). Opinion polls suggest he would have defeated Kaczynski in the election.
Tusk flew to the crash site late on Saturday, where he and Putin laid flowers together.
Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, leader of Poland's main opposition Law and Justice Party (PiS), also flew to the site to help identify the bodies.
The pilot of Kaczynski's plane ignored several orders not to land from air traffic control, the deputy chief of the Russian Air Force's general staff, Alexander Alyoshin, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Kaczynski, a combative nationalist often at odds with Tusk's centrist government and the EU, was a staunch critic of Putin's Russia. Putin had invited Tusk, not Kaczynski, to ceremonies last Wednesday marking the Katyn massacre anniversary.
Poles noted the irony of a crash that claimed the lives of so many members of Poland's elite near the spot where Josef Stalin's NKVD secret police shot dead some 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in 1940, wiping out much of the country's wartime leadership.
Putin and Tusk had pledged at their Katyn commemoration last week to work to overcome such painful historic memories.
In a further gesture of Russian solidarity, President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his condolences to the Polish nation on Saturday evening in an unprecedented television address. Russia has declared April 12 a day of mourning for the crash.
Russian television showed the smoldering fuselage and fragments of the plane scattered in a forest. A Reuters reporter saw a broken wing some distance from the rest of the aircraft.
The plane was one of two Tu-154s in the government fleet, both about 20 years old. Government officials had complained about the age of Poland's official fleet.
Poland and Russia both said they planned investigations into the causes of the crash.
CENTRAL BANK CONTINUITY
The conservative, nationalist-minded Kaczynski twins had spearheaded opposition to Tusk's pro-market economic policies and push for swift adoption of the euro. Analysts said they expected an upsurge of sympathy for PiS now but said it was too early to predict whether this would translate into votes.
Kaczynski was a one-time ally of Solidarity hero Lech Walesa and a co-founder of the right-wing PiS with his brother. He resigned from the party when he became president in 2005 but continued to support it.
While the president's role is largely symbolic, he can veto government laws. Kaczynski had infuriated Tusk's government several times by blocking health, media and pensions reforms.
Analysts said Polish markets would not be severely jolted.
"Although tragic, we do not believe that this event threatens political and financial stability in Poland in any fundamental way," Goldman Sachs said in a research note.
(Additional reporting by Robin Paxton, Guy Faulconbridge, Maria Kiselyova, Dmitry Sergeyev and Conor Humphries in Moscow; Agata Nalecz, Patryk Wasilewski, Chris Borowski and Gabriela Baczynska in Warsaw; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Michael Roddy)