Lithuanian society confused after dramatic airplane search operation

It was five days after last Saturday when the An-2 aircraft went missing en route from Sweden to Lithuania, when Lithuania's Prime Minister Butkevicius ordered Minister of Defense to conduct an in-depth investigation into the disaster.

Two days later, on Friday, it was decided by the government to establish a special commission to examine the search and rescue operation of the An-2.

"The commission will have to evaluate the actions of state institutions as well as coordination and legal regulation as regards search and rescue operations in the Baltic Sea," Butkevicius said.

Findings and proposals over improvement of legal regulation must be submitted by June 10, he added.

Two experienced pilots aboard, Adolfas Maciulis and Alvydas Selmistraitis, went missing during the accident. The An-2 airplane, which belonged to Klaipedos Avialinijos, a seaport company providing parachute jumping, fertilization and other services, was found sunken on Tuesday.

The An-2 search and rescue operation had been cancelled and renewed several times during this week.

Brigita Maciulyte, a daughter of one of the two missing pilots, said that Lithuanian minesweeper Kursis which found the sunken airplane had been recalled from military exercises in Estonia only after she phoned Minister of National Defense Juozas Olekas.

"I don't even dare to imagine what would have happened if I did not (call the minister); we would have the situation that the search is cancelled, the airplane remains at the bottom of the sea and we all live in obscurity," Maciulyte was quoted as saying by website Delfi.lt.

Famous Lithuanian columnists have been publicly asking on social networks whether the state is ready to take care of its citizen as it is guaranteed in the country's constitution. Few of them pointed to other recent human tragedies in the country, such as inability to rescue a young girl who was later murdered by a group of criminals, in spite of her several phone calls to emergency services during the tragic event.

So far, no official has been sacked or demerited due to the airplane accident. However, a public game of looking for those to blame has run high.

The Liberal Movement political group in the Seimas, Lithuanian parliament, believes not only Olekas but also Butkevicius should assume responsibility for search and rescue operation of the airplane.

According to Eligijus Masiulis, the leader of the Liberal Movement, the search operation for the airplane An-2 "was organized catastrophically unsuccessfully and negligently, thus not only the Defense Minister but the Prime Minister should accept responsibility."

Several Lithuanian politicians and high officials, including President Dalia Grybauskaite, pointed to poor coordination of actions.

"The search for the missing pilots shows a lack of coordination among institutions responsible for rescuing people," Grybauskaite was quoted as saying earlier this week.

Lithuanian institutions on Friday started preparatory work for salvaging the An-2 plane sunken in the Baltic Sea in order to identify the causes of the tragic incident, BNS news agency reported.