Chief commander of the Polish Navy has declared a period of mourning after Tuesday’s crash of a Bryza training plane belonging to the naval airforce.

The tragedy occurred during a landing approach at the Gdynia military airfield killing all four members of the Bryza crew. Navy spokesman, lieutenant commander Bartosz Zajda told Polish Radio the men on board were an experienced team: ‘The oldest of the officers was 48 and was a flight training supervisor. The team commander was also on board instructing his younger colleague, a lieutenant pilot. The fourth crew member was a navy NCO, a technician. He was 43.’

Lieutenant commander Zajda added that naval airforce crews have a reputation of being among the best in Poland. The Bryza plane which crashed near Gdynia field had been a 12 year old machine with some 1500 flight hours in its logbook.