A Boeing 737-400SF, registration EC-MFE, operated by the Spanish airline Swiftair under a wet-lease agreement for DHL, crashed early Monday morning (25th) while approaching Vilnius Airport, Lithuania.
According to data from FlightRadar24, the aircraft departed Leipzig at 1:55 AM (UTC). Its last recorded position was at 3:28 UTC (5:28 local time in Vilnius), at an altitude of 650 feet, just a few hundred meters from the threshold of runway 19.
The Boeing 737-400SF collided with a two-story building. According to preliminary reports from local authorities, all 12 residents were evacuated safely. Two pilots survived the crash, but unfortunately, one lost their life.
The aircraft, registration EC-MFE, was originally delivered to Qantas in October 1993. In 2013, it began operating for Cambodia’s Wat Phnom Airlines before being acquired by Swiftair in 2014. The conversion to a freighter aircraft was completed in 2015, and in 2016 it was transferred to European Air Transport (a DHL Group AOC) under a wet-lease agreement. According to data obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium Fleet Analyzer, as of April this year, the aircraft had accumulated 43,300 cycles and 62,937 flight hours.
Swiftair has four additional Boeing 737-400SF aircraft operating with DHL under the European Air Transport AOC, as well as four Boeing 737-800SF and one Boeing 757-200F.
