Vilnius Airport shutdown cancels 28 flights, after plane slides off taxiway

A total of 28 flights were canceled and 16 others delayed after Vilnius Airport was shut down on November 26 when a Polish Airlines aircraft slid off a taxiway.

The incident disrupted  travel for nearly 7,000 passengers and about 60 flights scheduled to depart from Vilnius, Lithuanian Airports (LTOU) said on November 27, Caliber.Az reports via LRT Radio.

LTOU’s Communications Department Head Vitalija Ročė noted that 16 flights were diverted to other airports, most of them to Kaunas, with passengers later transported to Vilnius by bus. 

Other diverted flights landed in Riga and Gdansk, while one aircraft heading from Copenhagen to Vilnius returned to Copenhagen. One regular Vilnius–London service was operated instead from Kaunas.

The disruption followed an incident on November 26 at 13:43 local time, when a LOT Polish Airlines aircraft arriving from Warsaw veered off a taxiway after landing at Vilnius Airport. 

None of the 63 passengers on board was injured. 

The airline added that the cause of the taxiway excursion would be determined by investigators from Lithuania’s Ministry of Justice.

By Sabina Mammadli