A cargo plane crashed early Monday on the outskirts of Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, colliding with a house and erupting in flames. The incident claimed the life of one crew member, while three others aboard, including the pilot, miraculously survived. Additionally, 12 residents of the home were safely evacuated, as confirmed by local authorities.
The aircraft, en route from Leipzig, Germany, was approaching Vilnius Airport when it went down just a few kilometers from the runway. The plane skidded across the ground for several hundred meters before striking a residential property, explained Renatas Pozela, head of the Fire and Rescue Department, during a media briefing.
“One crew member was found without any signs of life,” stated Vilmantas Vitkauskas, who heads Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center, as reported by the public broadcaster LRT. The three surviving crew members—a Lithuanian, a German, and a Spaniard—were hospitalised, according to the Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Department. Authorities reported no injuries among those on the ground.
Police and prosecutors are now examining the cause of the crash, with no initial indications of an explosion before the accident. Darius Jauniskis, Lithuania’s Counter-Intelligence chief, told reporters, “We cannot reject the possibility of terrorism… But at the moment, we can’t make attributions or point fingers, because we don’t have such information.”
Security camera footage from a nearby location captured the plane’s descent before it disappeared behind a building. Moments later, a massive fireball lit up the sky, followed by thick black smoke.
The incident occurred at approximately 5:30 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) near Zirniu Street, south of Vilnius, confirmed an airport spokesperson. Although some departures faced delays due to ongoing rescue efforts near the airport, all scheduled flights were proceeding. Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control by 7:33 a.m. local time, according to the Fire and Rescue Department.
The ill-fated cargo plane, a Boeing 737-400 operated by Swiftair under contract for DHL, had four individuals onboard, DHL confirmed in a statement to CNN. The company described the crash as a “forced landing about one kilometer from VNO Airport” and stated that investigations into the cause are underway.
The Mayor of Vilnius, Valdas Benkunskas, informed LRT that the aircraft narrowly avoided a direct collision with the house, instead crashing into the courtyard. Arūnas Paulauskas, head of the Lithuanian Police, said the crash was “most likely due to a technical fault or a human error,” while also acknowledging that terrorism “cannot be ruled out.” He added, “This is one of the versions of the crash, which will be investigated and checked. There is a lot of work ahead. The collection of evidence can take the whole week; there will not be quick answers.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Germany’s interior ministry noted no connection between the crash and earlier warnings about incendiary devices in packages, as reported by Reuters. They emphasised, “We will have to wait for the investigations to be completed.”
Western security officials have previously linked incendiary devices igniting in Germany and the United Kingdom to a covert Russian operation aimed at sparking fires aboard cargo and passenger planes destined for North America, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(CNN)
