On 10 April 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft operating Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. Among the victims were the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyski, and his wife, Maria, the former president of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers, the president of the National Bank of Poland, Polish Government officials, 18 members of the Polish Parliament, senior members of the Polish clergy, and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre. The group was arriving from Warsaw to attend an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the massacre, which took place not far from Smolensk.

The pilots were attempting to land at Smolensk North Airport - a former military airbase in thick fog, with visibility reduced to about 500 metres (1,600 ft). The aircraft descended far below the normal approach path until it struck trees, rolled inverted and crashed into the ground, coming to rest in a wooded area a short distance from the runway.Both the Russian and Polish official investigations found no technical faults with the aircraft, and concluded that the crew failed to conduct the approach in a safe manner in the given weather conditions. The Polish authorities found serious deficiencies in the organization and training of the Air Force unit involved, which was subsequently disbanded. Several high-ranking members of the Polish military resigned following pressure from politicians and the media.

Various conspiracy theories have been circulated alleging that the plane had been deliberately brought down by the Russians in an act of political assassination, with these theories also typically alleging that the 2011 investigations constituted a cover-up and that the Polish government of the day - primarily controlled by the Civic Platform party as opposed to Lech Kaczyski's Law and Justice party - was complicit in or aware of the plot or at least aided in the efforts to cover it up. While neither of the 2011 investigations reported any evidence supporting these claims, with the Polish investigation also examining how Russian air control failures were a contributory factor in the crash, the theories are regularly promoted by Jarosaw Kaczyski, twin brother to Lech Kaczyski and current leader of the Law and Justice party, and his deputy Antoni Macierewicz, and were given an official character following the conclusion of a new Polish investigation held by the Polish government, which by then was being led by the Law and Justice party, in April 2022; however, this did not produce any evidence that could conclusively challenge the 2011 reports.

The Polish Air Force (Polish: Siły Powietrzne, lit. 'Air Forces') is the aerial warfare military branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej (lit. 'Flying Troops and Air Defence'). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 military personnel and about 475 aircraft, distributed among ten bases throughout Poland.

The Polish Air Force can trace its origins to the months following the end of World War I in 1918. During the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939, 70% of its aircraft were destroyed. Most pilots, after the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, escaped via Romania and Hungary to continue fighting throughout World War II in allied air forces, first in France, then in Britain, and later also the Soviet Union.