Black boxes from crashed DHL plane in Vilnius to be sent to Germany - ministry

VILNIUS - There are plans to send the black boxes from the DHL cargo plane that crashed in Vilnius on Monday morning to Germany to be decoded, Laurynas Naujokaitis, the head of the Lithuanian Justice Ministry's Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division, says.

Investigators expect to have the first data from the black boxes this week, he added.

"We plan to send them to Germany, but we are still waiting for a response from the pre-trial investigation authorities as they assign officers who will accompany the black boxes. And, most likely, we might have some data by Friday," Naujokaitis told BNS, adding that it will depend on when the boxes are sent for decoding.

"We have given permission to do everything, and we are waiting for a decision of the pre-trial investigation authorities," he said.

It shouldn’t be difficult for specialists to extract all the data from the black boxes as they did not suffer major damage, Naujokaitis pointed out, adding that information from them is not made public.

"The safety investigation team has access to it," Naujokaitis said. "It's not that we are giving everything to everyone."

A Spanish national, 48, was killed and another Spaniard, as well as a German and a Lithuanian, were injured when the DHL cargo plane with a crew of four crashed near Vilnius Airport on Monday morning. The second victim, a Spaniard, is in serious condition.

The plane also clipped a house with 13 people inside, but they all escaped unharmed.

The cause of the crash remains unclear, with sabotage or terrorism not yet ruled out.

Police have conducted preliminary interviews with the plane's crew. According to officers, the crew did not report any fire on board before the aircraft hit the ground.

The Boeing 737, which was coming from the German city of Leipzig, was owned by Spain's Swift Air and used for transporting DHL parcels.