All 96 people on board died when a plane carrying Poland's President Kaczynski, his wife, and a delegation of senior officials crashed in thick fog while attempting to land at Smolensk airport.

Kaczynski was on his way to a ceremony in nearby Katyn to commemorate the memory of some 20,000 Polish officers killed by Soviet secret police during World War Two.

"Among those who were aboard the aircraft was the President of the Polish Olympic Committee Piotr Nurowski," a statement from the POC said.

"The chairman of the committee had, on behalf of the Polish Olympic family,was on his to lay a wreath on the graves of the Polish Olympic champions in 1940 killed at Katyn by Stalin's political police."

They were travelling on 26-year-old Tupolev.

The crash devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments.

On board were the Army Chief of Staff, National Bank President, Deputy Foreign Minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, Deputy Parliament Speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish Foreign Ministry said.

Nurowski, who was 64, was a former tennis player.

He previously served as the President of the Polish Athletics Federation from 1973 to 1980, making him at the time the youngest head of a major national federation anywhere in the world.

Nurowski, who had also previously worked in Foreign Ministry and helped set-up Poland's first commercial radio station, had been President of the POC since 2005.

Tributes were led by Irena Szewińska, Poland's greatest ever sportswoman who is a member of the International Olympic Committee and the vice-president of the POC.

She said: "Polish sport today lost a great figure.

"I can not imagine the loss."

Robert Korzeniowski, the former Polish walker who won four Olympic gold medals, said: "A few times I have listened to the message [about Nurowski's death] -  I tried to understand what had happened, but every time I don't believe it.

"I knew Peter very well.

"Under his rule, the situation in the POC improved significantly."

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