Lithuania’s safety investigation into a LOT Polish Airlines plane that skidded off a taxiway at Vilnius Airport on Wednesday could take more than a year, officials said Thursday.
Laurynas Naujokaitis, head of aircraft accident and incident investigations at the Justice Ministry, told reporters that investigators are still gathering information and assessing potential causes.
“It is hard to estimate how long the investigation will take, because the serious incident happened only yesterday. We are still gathering all the necessary information, but it will likely take a long time. Certainly at least a year,” he said.
Investigators are downloading flight recorder data, inspecting the aircraft for damage, and collecting details on weather conditions, runway status, the plane’s maintenance record, and the crew’s experience.
According to Naujokaitis, aviation accidents and incidents are typically the result of a chain of events rather than a single cause.
“Once we have all the information, we will analyse it, and the final report will include the factual findings, the analysis, and the conclusions,” he said. “At this stage, none of the possible explanations for the incident has been ruled out.”
Preliminary data indicate damage to the aircraft’s landing gear. Poland, as the plane’s state of registration and operator, has been notified, along with Brazil, the aircraft’s designer and manufacturer, and international aviation authorities including the International Civil Aviation Organization, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, and the European Commission.
Naujokaitis said Germany’s aviation safety authority was asked to assist in downloading flight recorder data, as Lithuania currently lacks that capability.
Vilnius Airport was closed from Wednesday afternoon until early Thursday morning due to the incident. Naujokaitis said recovery efforts required careful coordination with the airline and the manufacturer, which contributed to the delay in reopening the airport.
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