Search and rescue efforts continue in the Pabradė training area after four US soldiers went missing during an exercise on Tuesday. The armoured vehicle they were operating has been located submerged under water in a marshy area and has yet to be pulled out. It is not clear if the soldiers are inside.
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Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said on Thursday morning that there were “positive signs” in the ongoing effort to retrieve a US tracked armoured vehicle from water as the rescue operation for four missing US soldiers continues.
The vehicle was carrying four US soldiers who went missing during a training exercise at the Pabradė training area in eastern Lithuania on Tuesday.
“There are certain positive signs that give hope for a quicker scenario, thanks to certain technical recovery possibilities,” Šakalienė told LRT on Thursday morning.
According to the minister, the rescue efforts continued throughout the night, involving water pumping and ground reinforcement to allow heavy equipment to access the site without damaging a gas pipeline.
The possible location of the incident was identified on Wednesday when the M88 Hercules tracked recovery vehicle the US troops were in during the training exercise was found submerged in a body of water.
However, it remains unclear whether the missing American soldiers are inside.
“There’s no guarantee the soldiers are in [the vehicle]. Other scenarios are also being considered,” Šakalienė said.
Lithuanian officials say the search and rescue operation is technically very complex. It involves Lithuanian and US troops, various government agencies, and private companies.
Vehicle deep under water
Šakalienė and Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas went to Pabradė on Thursday morning. She said the vehicle is submerged deep in the water and still needs to be recovered in order to confirm if the four soldiers are inside.
“All versions are still being checked, and the Americans have informed us that they also continued to search the surrounding area throughout the night, because any scenarios are still considered possible until we see the vehicle, which is several metres deep,” Šakalienė said during the visit to the Pabradė training ground.
“We cannot confirm whether there are soldiers in the vehicle,” she added.
The M88 Hercules tracked rescue vehicle, weighing several dozen tonnes, is about five metres deep in mud, the minister said.
“It is not visible from the surface and it is difficult to feel it even with metal rods,” said Raimundas Vaikšnoras, commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, who is also at the scene.
Challenging terrain
According to Šakalienė, during the 24 hours of the rescue operation, a road had to be built in the swampy area so that heavy machinery could reach the scene. The minister hopes that the works will go smoothly and that the water flow will be stopped. If this is not possible, other equipment or piling will be considered, but this could take several days longer.
“There is nothing we can do to speed it up,” she said.
The minister said the missing young US soldiers had been in Lithuania for about two months. The authorities are in constant contact with their families, she added.
According to Vaikšnoras, the situation is complicated by the fact that a high-pressure gas pipe runs through the area.
“It was full of gas and we needed gas engineers, specialists first of all, to assess it, to turn off the gas flow, to relieve the pressure, so that our heavy equipment could start the work,” said the military commander.
The search and rescue operation involves Lithuanian and US troops, state institutions and private companies.
Recovery could take days
Šakalienė also said that a decision would soon be made on whether the rescue work could be carried out “under the shorter scenario” using an excavator rather than putting poles into the swamp.
“We’ll see how the excavation work goes. When the long-reach amphibious excavator begins digging, we’ll see if they managed to stabilise the area so that water entering the marshland can be controlled, allowing us to continue the work,” she said.
According to the minister, specialists will also assess whether a dredger is needed.
“Private companies are actively involved and responding very willingly. Contracts are in place to allow additional steps to be taken,” she said.
If a dredger does not achieve the desired result, the next scenario involves driving poles into the lake, which would “add several days to the work”, according to Šakalienė.
“In the current situation, we hope that perhaps [...] we can avoid putting poles in the lake to stop the water and instead move forward with excavation in the current phase,” the minister said.
“It’s very hard to say exactly how long this will take,” she added.
Šakalienė said that “hundreds of people” have been continuously working at the site. Vaikšnoras added that dozens of specialised equipment units have been deployed.
“Thanks to the efforts of all services, we’re at a point today where we expect excavation to begin successfully on the peat and mud, and we’ll likely be able to determine the vehicle’s position, if we find it,” the chief of defence said.
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