A Swiftair freighter coming from Leipzig crashed while approaching Vilnius. The Boeing 737 F crashed into a residential building. At least one person died in the accident.
The Boeing 737-400 SF took off from Leipzig early on Monday morning (November 25th). But Swiftair’s converted freighter did not arrive at its destination. According to local media, a report was received at 5:31 a.m. local time that the plane had crashed near Vilnius Airport at the Liepkalnis motorway junction.
The Boeing 737, which was traveling on behalf of DHL, apparently first skidded along the ground and then crashed into a two-story residential building near the airport. This caused a violent fire. “The ground shook, the whole house shook,” an eyewitness from a neighboring house told broadcaster LRT. Miraculously, all twelve people who were in the four apartments in the house were apparently able to be evacuated uninjured, as the Lithuanian news portal Delfi reports.
One person died
Things went less smoothly for the crew. The rescue workers rescued the pilot from the cockpit, who is conscious. Two other crew members were rescued and taken to hospital, according to local reports. One person – the other pilot – was pronounced dead. There were four people on board.
The crashed Boeing 737 with the registration EC-MFE was 31 years old. The crash site is around one kilometer from the runway. The freighter was last at an altitude of around 200 meters. We are now investigating technical or human failure. But in general nothing is being ruled out, not even the possibility of a terrorist act, says Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Center.
Swiftair specializes in cargo
Swiftair is a Spanish airline based at Madrid-Barajas Airport. It has existed since 1986. Its fleet currently consists of 42 aircraft. Apart from four ATR 72s in passenger configuration, which the airline operates for Uepfly, these are exclusively freighters.
These include Airbus A321 F, Boeing 737-300 F, -400 F and -800 F, Boeing 757-200 F as well as ATR 42 F and ATR 72 F (operated for Fedex). According to the Planespotters database, four Swiftair Boeing 737-400s and -800s are in use on behalf of DHL, including the aircraft with the registration number EC-MFE that has now crashed.
Airplane was 31 years old
The aircraft was 31 years old and had flown for Australian Airlines, Qantas, Wat Phnom Airlines and Sayegh Group Aviation. It has been part of Swiftair’s fleet since 2015.
This is an ongoing event. The article is continually updated.
