Divers managed to reach a man who had drowned in a swamp at the Pabradė training ground. JAV armored vehicle and hook one steel cable, the military reports.
"I'll start with the main good news - the first steel cable was hooked onto the sunken armored vehicle's hook, which in principle means that it is ready for the next step, which would be the extraction," Pabradė told reporters on Sunday. Lithuanian army Chief of the Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Remigijus Baltrėnas.
"The divers worked for four hours until they reached that point, hooked it, now there is a bit of a break for the divers and they will continue working to find the second hooking point and hook the second rope," he said.
According to him, no bodies were found in the swamp, and it is still difficult to say in what position the armadillo sank.
"Divers work in complete darkness, with complete silt, nothing can be seen there, everything is detected by the senses, touched, arranged, we cannot say where specifically yet," said R. Baltrėnas.
Next step – hooking the second rope
According to the lieutenant general, the next step will be to find a second hooking point and hook the rope.
"Then we will plan how we will try to pull M88 out of the swamp itself or at least move it. At this point, it is too early to talk about how we will carry out the extraction, because we need to find the place to hook the second rope and hook the rope," he said.
According to a military spokesman, the second diver operation, like the first, is expected to last about four or five hours and will take place on Sunday evening and into the coming night.
According to R. Baltrėnas, by hooking a second rope, the recovery of the armored vehicle would be "significantly more stable and successful", which would also allow the vehicle to stabilize its further sinking into the swamp.
He said that after divers failed to reach the military vehicle on Saturday evening, dredgers, cranes, and excavators worked all night, pumping water and trying to remove as much sludge as possible.
"Currently, with the joint efforts of Lithuanian and American soldiers and civilian institutions, we have a good positive step in this very complex operation," said R. Baltrėnas.
It's hard to say what's next.
According to the Chief of the Defense Staff, it is difficult to say what will happen next.
"It's very difficult to predict and I certainly won't do it, we're just happy with what's there and we're continuing to work on the operation," said R. Baltrėnas.
For now, it is planned that armored vehicles of the same M88 model will be used to tow the sunken vessel.
"And we have a range of heavy equipment that will be used based on weight, whichever is best suited, but for today, the same M88s are planned to participate in the exercise," said the Chief of the Defense Staff.
BNS reported that an M88 Hercules tracked rescue vehicle with four American soldiers on board went missing on Tuesday during an exercise at the Pabradė training ground in the Švenčionys district.
The Lithuanian and US militaries, as well as the country's institutions, are participating in the large-scale rescue operation. Several dozen Polish soldiers and equipment have also arrived to help.
Author Vilmantas Venckūnas
