Lithuania considers restarting search for plane lost over Baltic Sea

Lithuania was considering today whether to renew the search for an An-2 aeroplane which went missing over the Baltic Sea on Saturday. A search operation was underway yesterday, with both Lithuanian and Latvia rescue workers participating.

LRT Television news service announced that the two pilots on board, Adolfas Maciulis and Alvydas Selmistraitis, were both experienced. The aircraft had flown from Denmark to Gothenburg in Sweden, and was on its way to the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda. The last contact with air traffic control in Palanga, 30 km north of Klaipeda, was made on Saturday at 4:16 p.m., when the plane was flying at 40,000 feet altitude and had less than 180 km left to fly to Klaipeda.

According to Alvydas Sumskas, Deputy Director of Civil Aviation Administration, although it is difficult to say what happened the aircraft is believed to have crashed into the sea. He said that black boxes are not installed on these types of planes, only a monograph registering altitude, whose data would have little use for investigators. He added that this was the first Lithuanian aircraft to have disappeared over the Baltic Sea.