Vilnius – Lithuanian authorities have recovered the so-called black boxes from the DHL cargo plane that crashed near Vilnius on Monday, the Ministry of Justice announced today. Both devices were removed from the wreckage around noon and will now be analyzed. They could help clarify the still unknown causes of the crash, DPA wrote.
“The flight data recorder and voice recorder from the cockpit of the Boeing 737-476 aircraft were found and removed from the wreckage around 11:30 a.m. (10:30 a.m. CET),” the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice said.
A Swift Air plane en route from Leipzig to Vilnius crashed early Monday morning near the destination airport. According to preliminary data, the pilot who died in the accident was a Spanish national. In addition, there were three people on board the plane – a Lithuanian, a German and another Spaniard who suffered injuries. According to the Lithuanian agency Delphi one of them is in serious health condition.
According to the Lithuanian authorities, the investigation into the findings of the black boxes did not indicate that it was terrorism or sabotage, the Reuters agency wrote. “Our initial information does not indicate that we have to investigate more serious actions,” prosecutor Arturas Urbelis said in a statement, adding that the investigation is not over.
The airport in Vilnius stopped flight operations for a short time due to the investigation, the DPA agency reported shortly before noon. An airport representative confirmed to the agency that the runway was closed from 10:00 to 11:00 local time (09:00-10:00 CET).
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauséda today urged the public and the media to refrain from excessive speculation about the cause of the crash. According to him, the suspicion of a possible act of sabotage should not be overestimated, but neither should it be underestimated. At the same time, such a version cannot be ruled out, Nauseda said this morning on Lithuanian Radio (LRT). According to a spokesman for the National Crisis Management Center, there are no indications that an explosion occurred on the plane. The reason for the speculation is this year’s announcement by the German secret services, which some time ago stated that Russia was apparently behind the parcel fire at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig in July. It just happened that the package caught fire on the ground and not in the plane.
However, Lithuanian police chief Arunas Paulauskas on Monday called a technical fault or human error the most likely cause of the accident. German authorities are in contact with Lithuanian authorities and are participating in the investigation.
Lithuania, which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad region, is a staunch ally of Ukraine, which has been resisting Russian aggression since February 2022.
Lithuania post aviation accident
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
