Vilnius airport closed temporarily for investigation into DHL plane crash

VILNIUS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) — Vilnius Airport’s runway was closed for an hour on Tuesday morning when the police used drones to film the area where a DHL cargo plane crashed a day earlier.
The runway was closed from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time, causing up to four flights to be canceled.
A pilot was killed and three others injured in the cargo plane crash near the airport in the Lithuanian capital, the country’s Fire and Rescue Department said on Monday.
The Boeing 737-476 (SF) plane, which belonged to Spanish airline Swift Air, was flying from Leipzig, Germany, on behalf of German shipping company DHL when it crashed into a residential building near the Vilnius airport.
Investigators from Germany and Spain will join local authorities to determine what caused the crash, Laurynas Naujokaitis, director of the Lithuanian Justice Ministry’s Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division, said on Monday.
Police Commissioner General Arunas Paulauskas told local media that the inspection of the crashed DHL cargo plane would be completed within three days, after which the aircraft would be removed from the site.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said Tuesday that he is hopeful the cause of the crash will be fully uncovered, adding that the black boxes and testimony of the surviving crew members will aid the investigation. ■