SAS aircraft crash-lands in Vilnius - no casualties

A Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) plane crashed on landing in Lithuania's Vilnius airport early Wednesday morning, but none of 48 passengers and four crew members were injured, the Lithuanian BNS agency reported. Landing gear failure in the DHC Dash 8-400 aircraft was the apparent cause of the accident, according to Lithuanian authorities. "Pilots of the plane, heading from Copenhagen to Palanga noticed the failure of the right gear and decided to make an emergecny landing in Vilnius airport," Kestutis Auryla, director of the Lithuanian Civil Aviation Administration told BNS. "The plane went off the runaway due to failure of the right gear but landing taking into account the situation was successful," he added. "All passengers and members of the crew were safely evacuated," Auryla said. Several Dash 8-400 planes have been involved in similar accidents in recent days prompting SAS to ground all planes of this type. "Scandinavian Airlines has decided to ground it entire Dash 8-400 fleet until further notice," SAS said in a statement. dpa sib ch