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Roundup: Lithuanian gov't faces political pressure following plane crash

Xinhua, June 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Both Lithuanian's prime minister and transport minister were questioned in the parliament and the defense minister faced interpellation on Tuesday following the first plane crash in the Baltic Sea in Lithuanian civil aviation history.

Premier Algirdas Butkevicius and Rimantas Sinkevicius, minister of transport and communications, attended a sitting in the Seimas, Lithuanian parliament, to answer questions from opposition members regarding search-and-rescue operations for the civil plane which crashed on May 16.

Lithuanian authorities have been harshly criticized over the poor communication and lack of cooperation between aviation, defense, and rescue authorities in the first hours and days after the incident which killed the two pilots on board.

Butkevicius dismissed the criticism saying all authorities responsible for the search and rescue mission were working properly.

"The possible catastrophe was reported 30 minutes after estimated landing time. The search started half an hour after the report," Butkevicius was quoted as saying by news website delfi.lt when members of parliament (MPs) queried him.

Butkevicius, too, disagreed authorities didn't provide enough information to the media, although he admitted that communication with the relatives of the missing pilots had been lacking a "human factor."

During the sitting in the Seimas, it became clear the decision to stop the search of the missing plane, which disappeared on a Saturday, was made after 26 hours. The rescue operation was renewed the following Monday morning, after the pilots' relatives and media put pressure on the government and at the recommendations of the defense minister.

SECURITY CONCERNS

The disappearance of the single-engine plane caused MPs to call Lithuania's airspace security into question. MPs asked the prime minister whether it was possible for foreign airplanes to enter Lithuanian territory unnoticed. Butkevicius pointed out that in many countries the airspace is not covered by radars below certain altitude.

"However, I want to say that in larger cities, urban areas and in some regions planes are visible in lower altitudes as well," said the head of the cabinet.

FACING INTERPELLATION

The prime minister accused leaders of the Liberal opposition party of using the incident as political leverage after being asked whether Juozas Olekas, defense minister, should resign due to the so-called inadequate rescue operation.

Thirty-three members of the opposition parties from Liberal Movement and Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats signed an interpellation against the defense minister on the grounds that he failed to properly respond to the incident.

Olekas declined to comment to local media on the interpellation saying he still had not seen the text of the document.

The Lithuanian one-engine civil plane went missing 97 nautical miles from Lithuanian shores.

A team of specialists is still trying to inspect and lift the sunken plane from a depth of 124 meters. The body of one of the pilots is believed to still be inside. Endit