• On
28 February 1973 Antonov An-24V Polish Air Force
tail number 012, crashed in
Szczecin, north-west Poland. All 18 people on board were killed (including ministers of the interior of Poland and
Czechoslovakia). • On
4 December 2003 Mi-8 helicopter carrying Poland's Prime Minister
Leszek Miller crashed near
Warsaw, all people on board survived. • On
10 April 2010 a
Tupolev Tu-154 with Polish Air Force
serial 101
crashed whilst attempting to land in fog at
Smolensk North Airport, Russia. All 96 on board died, including
Poland's
President Lech Kaczyński and 42 other officials en route to the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the
Katyn massacre nearby. The crash also took lives of the Chief of the
General Staff of the Polish Army and most senior
military commanding officers, the
National Bank of Poland governor, the
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and dignitaries in the
government, vice-speakers and members of the
Senate of the Republic of Poland and
Sejm of the Republic of Poland houses of the
National Assembly of the Republic of Poland, and senior members of
clergy of various
denominations. On 4 August 2011, the regiment was disbanded by the Polish Minister of National Defence as a direct consequence of the 2010 crash. The regiment officially ceased to exist on 31 December 2011; however, the 1st Air Transport Base continues to transport government VIPs by helicopter. In the immediate aftermath of the regiment's closure, all Polish government officials have been using civil aircraft owned by
LOT Polish Airlines, mainly two
Embraer 175 operated exclusively for government; later, in December 2017, the Polish Air Force acquired 3
Boeing 737s for government use. ==Equipment disbandment in 2011 ==