A Boeing 737 crashed early this morning in Europe, while on final approach to an airport. While there are more questions than answers, let’s go over what we know as of now.
In this post:
Swiftair Boeing 737-400 cargo jet has fatal crash
This incident happened today (Monday, November 25, 2024), and involves a Swiftair Boeing 737-400 with the registration code EC-MFE. The 31-year-old jet was operating a cargo service on behalf of DHL, flying from Leipzig, Germany (LEJ), to Vilnius, Lithuania (VNO).
Shortly before 5:30AM local time this morning, the aircraft was on final approach to runway 19 at Vilnius Airport, after a 586-mile flight. About four nautical miles before landing, the aircraft was cleared for an ILS approach, and the approach controller told the pilots to contact the tower frequency.
The pilots never contacted the tower, and then roughly one nautical mile from the runway threshold, the jet impacted a residential building and caught fire.
While the residential building was on fire, fortunately there were no injuries on the ground. There were four crew members onboard the jet. One crew member was immediately declared dead, while the other three were taken to hospitals with injuries. It’s not known how bad those injuries are.
VASAviation has an excellent recreation of the plane’s approach, plus the air traffic control audio, where you can hear one of the pilots communicating with the approach controller.
The Aviation Herald also has a good breakdown of what happened. Below are some videos of the crash from a distance.
For those not familiar with Swiftair, it’s a carrier headquartered in Madrid, which operates passenger and cargo flights, both on a scheduled and charter basis.
Let’s see what a crash investigation reveals
Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the crash, claiming it’s most likely due to technical causes or human error, but other causes, including terrorism, can’t be ruled out.
Were the pilots just on the wrong glide path, and they descended too early, and for some reason didn’t see the runway? Did the plane stall for some reason, like a sudden shift in the center of gravity due to cargo not being properly secured?
There are a couple of things that are noteworthy here. First of all, in the second video above, you can get a pretty clear picture of the plane’s path. It seems like it was approaching really low, and then suddenly the nose pitched down, at which point the plane crashed.
Furthermore, the pilots never reported any sort of an issue to air traffic control. Instead, communication just completely stopped after they finished communicating with the approach controller, and prior to contacting the tower frequency.
Admittedly pilots are always taught to “aviate, navigate, and communicate,” in that order, so communicating is the last priority in an emergency. But still, if there was any sudden emergency, you’d think they would have transmitted a “mayday,” or something. Obviously something went very wrong around the same time that they were supposed to switch frequencies.
I think it’s worth mentioning that a few weeks ago there was talk of a Russian terror plot to take down aircraft by igniting incendiary devices. A test run had been performed out of Leipzig, at a DHL facility. That’s probably unrelated, though it’s still noteworthy, given that we’re talking about a DHL contracted flight out of Leipzig.
Bottom line
A Swiftair Boeing 737-400 operating a cargo flight on behalf of DHL crashed while on approach to Vilnius today. Around one nautical mile before the runway threshold, the plane impacted a building, and burst into flames. Air traffic control communications had been totally normal, except for the pilots suddenly losing contact while switching frequencies.
My thoughts are with the family of the crew member who lost their life, and with the survivors, that they’re able to make a full recovery.
What do you make of this Swiftair Boeing 737 accident?
If there were any NATO weapons/supplies on board intended for final delivery in Ukraine, this becomes a legitimate target. I am not saying that is what happened in this case but food for thought.
British news speculating it is war related.
Not going to speculate on cause, but as a commercial pilot and flight instructor the pitch forward toward the end is definitely not something a pilot would do. If the plane is on the ILS , it would be on autopilot , possibly through the landing (depends on a variety of factors ), but at least until at or almost to "decision height," which could be a variety of altitudes above the ground depending on...
Not going to speculate on cause, but as a commercial pilot and flight instructor the pitch forward toward the end is definitely not something a pilot would do. If the plane is on the ILS , it would be on autopilot , possibly through the landing (depends on a variety of factors ), but at least until at or almost to "decision height," which could be a variety of altitudes above the ground depending on pilot and aircraft certification. too many variables. Black box time,
Even newer, sophisticated single-engine piston planes record a massive amount of data, so there will be quite a bit here.
Thanks, very good observations.
@ben in the third paragraph (not counting the lede) you say "The pilots never contacted the power..." I think you meant "tower."
Most likely it's the Russians, the source of most of the troubles in the world. This is how Putin sends a "message" and their fingerprints are all over this.
The expectation of relative safety when flying, that we have all depended on for generations, is now over.
Make Aviation Great Again.
Russia derangement syndrome
The Russian government has already made numerous threats to sabotage cargo aircraft.
Recently a Russian ballet dancer
, Vladimir Shklyarov, who spoke out against Put(a)in fell off a balcony.
I highly doubt it's the Russians. It just seems like the popular thing to do is blame Russia for everything. Just like Nordstream...everyone initially blamed Russia, and it's now become obvious that the Russians had nothing to do with it.
I highly doubt it's the Russians. It just seems like the popular thing to do is blame Russia for everything. Just like Nordstream...everyone initially blamed Russia, and it's now become obvious that the Russians had nothing to do with it. Seems like the US and NATO are the sources of most of the world's troubles.
Did you actually watch the video or read the info in the Aviation Herald? If it was sabotage, don't you think that this would have taken place mid-flight or on takeoff/ascent? This clearly appears to be a botched descent of some sort. The reasons for it will certainly take time to discover, but jumping to "it's the Russians!" is laughably absurd.
Full disclosure: I personally despise the Russian government and this is a nation that...
Did you actually watch the video or read the info in the Aviation Herald? If it was sabotage, don't you think that this would have taken place mid-flight or on takeoff/ascent? This clearly appears to be a botched descent of some sort. The reasons for it will certainly take time to discover, but jumping to "it's the Russians!" is laughably absurd.
Full disclosure: I personally despise the Russian government and this is a nation that has pissed away so much potential to be an economic powerhouse by spending its efforts on being a bully. But let's get real here.
Another view from a different angle;
https://youtu.be/MXyXgSu5CBE?si=s5yj67-zpDhRvx3n
RIP
Ben,
FLAero posted a video on LinkedIn that was a lot closer to the actual crash site. It's overlooking a hill, called Vilniuje Nukrito. Looks like they were traveling faster than they should on decent, then they clipped something and went over on themselves. Might be worth looking at.
I'm obviously not an air crash investigator, but I'm getting Turkish 1951 vibes.
Looks like they blew through the ILS due to the late misunderstanding of the clearance on the ILS - Z. Pure speculation, but they may have become task saturated trying to stabilize their approach on the localizer that they failed to notice they busted through the glide slope.
That’s very sad news. RIP to those on board.
Ben, just a small typo, instead of “never contacted the tower”, you wrote “never contacted the power”.
It was reported just 3 weeks ago that there were plots from Russia to get an explosive onboard a DHL aircraft departing Leipzig... I certainly hope that this isn't one of those.
@ Nolan -- That's a great point! I'll update the post to add that, thanks.
Honestly, adding that to the post is a bit cringeworthy. It seems it's the in-vogue thing to do nowadays - blame Russia for everything.
WSJ originally reported the threat I think:
https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-plot-us-planes-incendiary-devices-de3b8c0a