25 November 2024 - Swiftair 5960

Swiftair Flight 5960 (operating as European Air Transport Leipzig Flight 18D) was a cargo flight that crashed early in the morning on 25 November 2024 while on final approach to Vilnius Airport. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-400, was flying from Leipzig/Halle Airport in Leipzig, Germany, to Vilnius Airport in Vilnius, Lithuania, when it crashed short of the runway and came to a stop near a two-story house in Liepkalnis. The captain was killed in the accident and the other three were injured. No one on the ground was injured. 

• Accidental Hydraulic Deactivation: Approximately 13 minutes before the crash, while attempting to activate the engine anti-ice system, the captain mistakenly flipped the switches for Hydraulic System B located directly below the anti-ice controls.

• Disabled Flaps: Deactivating Hydraulic System B severed the pressure required to extend the trailing edge flaps. Despite moving the flap lever, the crew did not visually verify that the flaps remained at 0°, leading to an unstabilized, high-speed approach.

• Checklist Omissions: The crew failed to complete the landing checklist, which would have verified the aircraft's landing configuration.

• Communication Loss: In the final minutes, the crew misdialed the tower frequency, losing contact with air traffic control during the most critical phase of flight.

• Late Recovery: The co-pilot only recognized that the flaps were retracted 12 seconds before impact, coinciding with stick shaker activation and EGPWS "Sink Rate" and "Pull Up" warnings. Although a go-around was initiated and engines reached over 90% thrust, the aircraft was too low to recover and impacted terrain 1.5 km short of the runway.

>>> DOWNLOAD<<< the Accident Report including the CVR Transcript