A preliminary investigation of the flight recorders of the Polish government jet which crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk on Saturday suggests the crash was the result of pilot error. Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and a large number of government officials and senior armed forces commanders were among the 96 dead.

Earlier, the Russian authorities had already ruled out that the crash was the result of a fire or an explosion. They also denied rumours that the Polish president was himself to blame for the accident by urging the pilots to land despite a dense fog.

President Kaczynski and his wife are now lying in state at the presidential palace in Warsaw. Huge numbers of Poles have flocked to the palace to pay their final respects to the late president and his wife, who will be buried on Sunday. 

The funeral will be attended by a number of world leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama. Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende will attend on behalf of the Netherlands.