Aviation Day celebrated in Poland - News - National Security Bureau

28.08.2016

Aviation Day celebrated in Poland

President Andrzej Duda and Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz attended on Saturday national observances of the Aviation Day and the 10th anniversary of F-16 fighters' service in the Polish Air Force, held at the Krzesiny air base near Poznan (west Poland). The president was accompanied by head of the National Security Bureau (BBN) Pawel Soloch.

  • A. Hrechorowicz
    A. Hrechorowicz
  • A. Hrechorowicz
    A. Hrechorowicz
  • A. Hrechorowicz
    A. Hrechorowicz
  • A. Hrechorowicz
    A. Hrechorowicz
After a field mass, a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the Krzesiny base to honour the late presidential couple and the late general Stanislaw Targosz, the commander of the Polish Air Force in November 2006 when first F-16 fighters arrived at the base. Maria and Lech Kaczynski attended the ceremony in 2006 and the first lady christened the planes The Hawks.
 
President Duda stressed that the arrival of the first F-16 fighters marked the beginning of great progress in the Polish Air Force. "We remember the people thanks to whom the Polish army and the Polish Air Force entered a completely new road of development," the president said.
 
The president stressed that general Targosz considered F-16 planes the best choice and added that "they were also President Kaczynski's dream and an element of his great plan" regarding the Polish army.
 
"Today the Polish army is still being modernised. At that moment (...) Poland was a NATO member but in fact these planes were the first sign of the alliance in Poland. The political situation has changed. Thanks to our efforts, thanks to good cooperation with our allies and thanks to political decisions, Poland is not only a NATO member but the alliance's presence is more and more visible in Poland," the president said.
 
A monument to general Andrzej Blasik was also unveiled during the observances. The late general Blasik, the commander of the Polish Air Force, was killed in a presidential plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. On April 10, 2010, President Kaczynski and his delegation were heading to attend ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. All the 96 people on board died in the crash.
 
"This was a day of our great loss. We lost the great president, we lost great army commanders, and we lost many people for whom Poland was a goal. But we managed to get up and we have been moving forward since then," President Duda said.
 

The Aviation Day, observed in Poland on August 28, has been established to commemorate the victory of famous pilots Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura in the prestigious Challenge Touring Aircraft 1932 Competition in 1932. The holiday honours military and civil aviators as well as aircraft designers and manufacturers.

Source: PAP,  president.pl