WARSAW, Poland — Thousands of mourners tossed flowers on a slow-moving hearse and joined an enormous viewing line at the presidential palace to pay their respects Tuesday to Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife as their bodies lay in state.
Kaczynski and his wife, Maria Kaczynska, were among 96 people killed Saturday in a plane crash in western Russia. Investigators are pointing to human error as the cause.
Mourners knelt, prayed and cried before the first couple’s coffins in the Columned Hall of the palace, where the president appointed and dismissed governments. The line to get in grew to more than half a mile.
“We will wait as long as it takes,” said Alicja Marszalek, a retired telephone operator who was waiting with a friend. “We want to pay homage to them because they were wonderful people. He was a modest man, very well educated, intelligent and kind.”
Earlier Tuesday, Kaczynska’s body was greeted with tears and tulips after being flown home from Russia. Officials announced that the couple would be buried Sunday after a state funeral at Krakow’s Wawel Cathedral.
In Washington, the White House announced that President Barack Obama would attend the funeral. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev is also expected to attend.
