Lithuania: Flight recorders to be examined abroad

According to the authorities, there is no research facility in Lithuania that can analyze the flight recorders of the crashed cargo plane. According to Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Center, the flight data recorder and voice recorder of the Swift Air plane, which was on its way from Leipzig to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on behalf of DHL, will therefore be taken abroad for examination. The evaluation will probably take place at "one of our European allies", he said on Lithuanian radio. He did not provide any further details.

The investigators hope that the analysis of the flight recorders will provide important information about the cause of the crash. The cargo plane crashed into a residential area near Vilnius Airport early on Monday morning shortly before its planned landing and crashed to the ground. One of the four crew members died in the crash.

The Lithuanian authorities launched an extensive investigation following the crash and recently recovered the flight recorder from the completely destroyed aircraft. The flight data recorder records the flight data, the voice recorder the conversations in the cockpit.