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1st LD writethru: Lithuanian politician dead in light aircraft crash

Xinhua, June 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Lithuanian politician died after a small aircraft crashed in Alytus aerodrome, southern Lithuania, on Friday.

Local media reported 57-year-old Vytautas Galvonas, former member of the Lithuanian parliament and president of Lithuanian federation of acrobatic flying, died in a private single-seater acrobatic aircraft JAK 55M accident after unsuccessfully trying to do a so-called "spin" trick.

It was confirmed later by Civil Aviation Administration that Galvonas was piloting the airplane.

Alvydas Sumskas, deputy director of Civil Aviation Administration, said in an interview with local broadcaster LRT that training camp of acrobatic flying was taking place in Alytus.

"It was not technical problems for sure," Sumskas said, "It was quite a simple trick, the so-called spin, and there was not enough height to exit the trick," he added.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius expressed his condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased pilot.

Galvonas was appointed as a Lithuania's vice minister of finances in 2013, but was forced to leave his duties in July last year due to a corruption scandal. Galvonas was a member of the Law and Justice party. Endit