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Roundup: Lithuanian president urges more coordination in rescue operations

Xinhua, May 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The ongoing search of the missing Lithuania-registered civilian airplane with two pilots on board in the Baltic Sea lacks coordination, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said Tuesday.

"The search for the missing pilots shows a lack of coordination among institutions responsible for rescuing people," Grybauskaite was quoted as saying in an official statement.

In the case of such an accident, capabilities of all state institutions must be pulled together, she stressed, adding that decisions on searching for people in the sea are made by the Lithuanian Navy's Maritime Rescue Coordination Center.

The An-2 aircraft with two pilots, Adolfas Maciulis and Alvydas Selmistraitis, on board went missing on May 16 en route from Sweden to Lithuania over the Baltic Sea. No traces of the aircraft have been found during the operation so far.

Lithuania's Transport and Communications Ministry opened an investigation into the disappearance of the airplane.

Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense informed on Tuesday, that the Kursis M-54 minesweeper of the Lithuanian navy has joined the efforts to find the missing plane and its crew.

According to the ministry, the Sakiai search and rescue ship is still searching the surface and the Spartan C27-J transport aircraft of the Lithuanian air force is conducting aerial search.

The Mi-8 helicopter of the Lithuanian air force is on standby at coastal Nemirseta rescue center ready to take off in case any objects relating to the plane or its crew, or any indications of the location of its crash, are found, the ministry said in a statement.

Latvia continues to take part in the operation as well, with the Latvian navy ship Virsaitis now searching Latvian waters near Liepaja.

Members of pilots' families have been critical about capabilities employed at the start of the search and rescue operation.

The Kursis minesweeper has been called off from an international mine countermeasures operation in Estonia only after members of one pilot's family called Lithuanian Minister of Defense Juozas Olekas.

"One phone call is enough to assign the vessel capable to search the seabed," daughter of missing pilot Maciulis, Brigita Maciulyte, told BNS news agency.

"Then there is one simple question why authorities responsible for the rescue operation did not do anything to employ more technical capacities earlier," she added. Endit