Ok, "event"

Damn, I guess no-one even knows what happened in Katyn, let alone Smolensk

Nope, care to write a wikipedia article about it?

I'm not sure... It would do some damage I suppose

And you're talking about the Polish crash, I got that

I don't know what you're talking about, but a wing could shred itself with a birch tree if it hits it with enough force. Wings aren't designed for that kind of impact.

I can't tell you about how plane wigs and birch trees interact. But this sounds like an example of pilot error in bad weather conditions?

What are you suggesting caused the plane to flip over if the wing didn't shear off?

Hah, it's not me who are suggesting this, but there are a lot of people in Poland, including our main opposition party who believe that before the wing hit the tree the plane experienced a series of explosions or was "otherwise restrain". They keep saying that a brich-tree could absolutely not damage the wing enough as to cause the plane to roll and eventually crush.

Have you ever seen a plane's wing hit water? The plane tomahawks and gets shredded to pieces. It doesn't take much for such an intricate machine to lose its aerodynamic form, lose control, and then lose stability entirely. A tree would certainly do it if even a little touch on water can do it.

Actually bo_sox, that isn't a good example because hitting water involves an absolutely set of mechanics than hitting a tree.

Anyway, as I said - I have no doubt this was an accident, but was rather curious whether anyone hear has ever heard of it

Not sure what you mean by that, unless you're saying that water has different properties than a tree and thus has different effects on a wing moving at high speeds, which is true. My point was that clipping anything with a wing will probably cut it if not rip the plane to pieces.

I like the fact that the Russians and Poles both basically agree - this was an accident ( in history, when you can get enemies agreeing on something you usually know there is some truth to it) That said the reports entirely diverge on who they interpret as being at fault for the accident... Even while agreeing with most of the physical events. (That is also not too surprising)

That said, i've no idea how to predict the interaction of a tree and plane wing... ( despite my degree in physics )

Orathic, a big portion of Polish society (I think in latest poll it was ~30%) believe that this was an assassination carried out by either the Russians or the ruling party (president was from opposition). But other theories persist as well - for example my first landlady used to tell me that the president was assassinated by Mossad : D

A couple days ago it was the fifth anniversary of this accident, and yet there is still no consistent Polish version (for example a couple days ago a new transcript hit the news, suggesting that the pilots were pressured by the Chief of Airforce - it wouldn't be the first time pilots were pressured to land in an extremely dangerous conditions under the rule of Kaczyński). That of course is also due to the fact that 5 years after the accident the Russians still haven't return neither the wreckage nor the flight recorders.