Swiftair Flight 5960
Swiftair on behalf of European Air Transport Leipzig (DHL Aviation) Boeing 737-476(SF) · Crashed on approach following the disabling of the hydraulic system; under investigation
From Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) to Vilnius International Airport (VNO)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA25WA046
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 4
- Survivors
- 3
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Boeing 737-476(SF)
- Flight
- QY5960
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- EC-MFE
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ)To Vilnius International Airport (VNO)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 129: Foreign
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Swiftair Flight 5960 (operating as European Air Transport Leipzig Flight 18D) was an international 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 into the ground 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.
Accident
The aircraft took off from the DHL hub at Leipzig Airport at 02:08 UTC (03:08 local) on 25 November with the co-pilot being the pilot flying and cruised at FL330 (33,000 ft) The accident occurred when flight 5960 was on final approach to Vilnius Airport. The flight first struck trees before sliding across a pathway and a road before striking a two-story house in the Liepkalnis neighborhood, approximately 1.3 km north of the airport at 3:28:08 UTC (5:28:08 local). The house in which the aircraft struck was partially destroyed by the impact and fire resulting from the jet fuel igniting.
All 13 occupants of the house were safely evacuated. Several roads were closed in Liepkalnis, while authorities urged people not to travel to the area. Several buildings and a car were also struck by the plane. The captain was killed in the accident, while everyone else survived.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Acting Minister of National Defence Laurynas Kasčiūnas said that no signs indicating a sabotage have been identified in its preliminary stages. The Lithuanian special services briefed that there had been no indications of foul play.
This accident is being investigated by the Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division of the Ministry of Justice of Lithuania, with assistance of investigators from Spain, Germany and the United States. The safety investigation authority of Spain sent two investigators and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport of Germany sent four experts from the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation to Lithuania to assist in the investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent a team of US investigators from the NTSB, Boeing, and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to Lithuania to assist with the investigation. The Lithuanian Ministry of Justice also notified the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the European Commission and the FAA about the accident.
A Beechcraft King Air 350 calibration and inspection aircraft of the Polish Air Navigation Service was also employed to check the guidance and navigational systems of Vilnius airport after the crash. Both flight recorders (CVR and FDR) were found on the same day at around 11:30. Lithuanian authorities announced that an inspection of the crash site will be held in the next two to three days, and that after it the wreckage of the plane will be removed. Due to the lack of a suitable laboratory in Lithuania, the flight recorders were to be sent to Germany for analysis. Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda also visited the crash site. On 29 November, the wreckage of the plane and its cargo were removed from the crash site and taken to a hangar, where they will be analysed during the investigation.
On 20 December, the Lithuanian justice ministry, citing police investigations and analysis of the flight recorders, announced that it had found no "unlawful interference" in the crash.
On 26 March 2025, the Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania, citing pretrial investigations, stated that a human error was the likely cause of the crash, adding that the hydraulic systems responsible for deploying the aircraft's flaps were disabled. Lithuanian prosecutors also asked the Spanish authorities to serve a notice of suspicion to the pilot, who was by then being treated in Spain.
On 31 March 2025, the Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division released an interim report. The report stated that the flaps were in the retracted position and that the flight crew had switched to the wrong air traffic control frequency before the crash.
On 18 November 2025, the Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division released an interim statement. It stated that "approaching the anniversary of the accident, the investigation still continues due to the complexity of the accident. The final report is expected to be prepared over the course of the next few months."
Text from the Wikipedia article “Swiftair Flight 5960” (revision 1359576651, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Swiftair Flight 5960
- Article
- Swiftair Flight 5960
- Revision
- 1359576651 · 2026-06-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q131319476
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA25WA046
- Event ID
- 20241125195540
- Case number
- DCA25WA046
- Dataset
- weekly-update
- Source SHA-256
- f31b6e5568cc2c45ccc9d492240c04eb8ee083a9aa17cb57c56485374fb6c419
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Swiftair Flight 5960" (page 78442106, revision 1359576651); merged with NTSB case DCA25WA046 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA25WA046
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Swiftair Flight 5960" and NTSB case DCA25WA046, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.