The air traffic controllers who were suspended after the crash of a DHL plane in Vilnius last November have been reinstated to their previous positions, LRT RADIO has reports on Thursday.
According to Sauliaus Batavičius, head of Oro Navigacija, the state-owned air traffic control company, an internal investigation showed that the air traffic controllers were not to blame for the crash.
“There were three air traffic controllers working that shift at the time of the accident. After that, we gradually monitored the whole process of them returning to work with a reduced workload, and it was successful, and they are now fully at work,” Batavičius told LRT Radio.
“All the factors showed that they can work, and they are working,” he said, adding that psychologists were involved in the reinstatement of the air traffic controllers and the process was based on their conclusions.
The Boeing plane used by Swiftair at the time and carrying DHL parcels crashed on approach to Vilnius Airport on the morning of November 25. The Spanish pilot was killed and three people, another Spaniard, a German, and a Lithuanian national, were injured.
The plane clipped a residential property with 13 residents on landing, all of whom escaped unharmed. The affected families were provided with social housing for a year by the Vilnius authorities.
The Justice Ministry said in late December that a preliminary analysis of the crashed plane’s black boxes showed no signs of unlawful interference during the crash.
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