Spanish and German officials will come to Lithuania to investigate the causes of the cargo plane crash in Vilnius, Laurynas Naujokaitis, head of the Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Unit at the Ministry of Justice, said on Monday, the 25th of November, with the German Foreign Minister saying the crash could be an accident or a hybrid attack in “unstable times”, according LRT and Reuters.
A cargo plane operated by DHL’s Spanish contractor Swiftair crashed near Vilnius airport on Monday morning. One crew member, a Spanish national, died and three others were injured.
“At the moment we have information that the German safety authority has assigned four investigators to carry out a safety investigation and they are on their way to Lithuania. The security investigation authority of the Kingdom of Spain has appointed two investigators who will arrive in Lithuania soon,” Naujokaitis told news portal 15min on Monday.
According to him, the investigation into the causes of the accident could take about a year.
“According to European Union law, it is desirable [to complete the investigation] as soon as possible, but it will probably take a year. However, once we gather the factual information and confirm it, we will be able to publish interim reports with interim information,” Naujokaitis said.
The Ministry of Justice also informed the US, where the plane was manufactured, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency about the incident.
“The sole purpose of a safety investigation is to prevent future accidents and incidents, not to determine who is at fault or responsible,” Naujokaitis said. “Who is guilty and responsible is determined by the judicial authorities. Our investigation is focused solely on aviation safety and is independent of other pre-trial investigations aimed at determining who is at fault.”
According to him, this is the first time Lithuanian authorities have faced such a situation.
“An accident of this scale is probably the first in the history of independent Lithuania,” the ministry spokesman said.
Lithuanian officials said there were no indications of sabotage so far, although Germany is investigating several fires caused by self-igniting devices hidden in parcels delivered by DHL to a Leipzig warehouse earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian officials said that the pilots did not observe any signs of an emergency when contacting the aircraft by radio.
“In the recording of the conversation between the pilots and the tower, it can be heard that the pilots did not report any extraordinary events to the tower until the last second,” said Marius Baranauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Aviation Authority.
“We have to check the black boxes to find out what happened on the plane.”
The plane’s black boxes have not yet been found, the head of the government’s National Crisis Management Centre said on Tuesday.
“The fact that we, together with our Lithuanian and Spanish partners, now have to seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or, after last week’s events, another hybrid incident, shows what volatile times we are living in, even in the heart of Europe,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
DHL has launched its own investigation into the crash, said a spokesman for the company’s Lithuanian branch, and the plane was reportedly carrying ordinary parcels.
According to the Flightradar24 database, the aircraft was 31 years old.
A video by Lithuanian National Television gives a glimpse of Monday’s DHL crash.
Video footage via Lithuanian National Television gives further perspective of this morning’s crash of DHL flight QY5960 whilst on approach to Vilnius International Airport.https://t.co/nr0nuzaPvt#Vilnius #DHLVilnius #VilniusAirport #AvGeek pic.twitter.com/VlQoPO6RrP
— AviationSource (@AvSourceNews) November 25, 2024