The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), the "black boxes" of the B-737/400 aircraft operated by Swiftair on behalf of DHL, which crashed last Monday 25 November while approaching one of the runways of the international airport of Vilnius (Lithuania), were found yesterday. In its uncontrolled flight, the aircraft almost caused a tragedy because, after setting fire to a residential building, it fell into a courtyard. Only a fortuitous event meant that the toll of the accident was limited: one victim and three injured among the 4 occupants of the airplane. No victims on the ground (see AVIONEWS).

The two "black boxes" found and recovered yesterday, according to what we learn from Lithuanian Government sources, will be sent to Germany to be decrypted, and they could contribute a lot to establish the causes of the accident, which at the moment they attribute to a communication error, or rather to the reading of some data relating to the runway. A few hours after the event, however, there were those who spoke of a terrorist act or tampering, a hypothesis already excluded by the investigators. Therefore, technical problems or pilot error are also being examined, since the weather conditions were not critical.

Laurynas Naujokaitis, head of the Lithuanian Justice Ministry's air accident investigation division, said: "We are planning to send the flight recorders to Germany, but we are still waiting for a response from the preliminary investigation authorities, to assign the officials who will accompany the black boxes. Most likely, we expect to have the first data by Friday".

The inspection of the crashed aircraft is expected to be completed within three days, after which the plane can be removed from the crash scene, authorities said.