A DHL cargo plane flying from Leipzig, Germany, crashed into the courtyard of a two-storey building near Vilnius airport at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, the 25th of November, reportedly killing one person, according to LRT.
The building was located approximately 1.3 km north of the airport. The pilot was found alive at the scene.
“One crew member was found with no signs of life, two were rescued and taken to hospital,” said Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the country’s National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC).
Authorities later said that four people were on board – two pilots and two crew members. One of them is in serious condition.
The pilot who died in the crash was a Spanish national, police confirmed later on Monday morning. The other three crew members were a Lithuanian, a German and another Spanish national.
According to Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas, the plane “by chance” missed the house and crashed crashed in the yard, but the debris set the two-storey building on fire. “All the [13] residents of the house are safe and have been evacuated,” Benkunskas said.
Early Monday morning, a cargo plane crashed into a residential building near Vilnius Airport in Liepkalnis, according to preliminary data. As a representative of the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD) told LRT RADIO, at least one person was killed and one was injured. pic.twitter.com/7enowhI2n6
— Aviation_VNO (@Aviation_VNO) November 25, 2024
The Boeing 737-476(SF), operated by DHL contractor SWIFT, was flying from Leipzig, Germany, to Lithuania.
LRT cited recent reports of two packages with self-igniting mechanisms shipped via DHL from Lithuania which had caused a fire at a logistics centre in Leipzig.
Mindaugas Pivorūnas, CEO of DHL Lithuania, told LRT.lt that the cause of the accident or the cargo is not yet clear.
According to NKVC spokesman Vitkauskas, the cause of the crash is being investigated as being related to “technical issues”.
Vilnius airport continues to operate as usual, with some flight delays and one flight to Riga in Latvia cancelled.
The crash was most likely caused by a “technical defect or human error”, said Lithuanian police chief Arūnas Paulauskas, adding that “the plane landed and did not reach the runway, these are the facts”, but terrorism “cannot be ruled out”.
“This is one of the versions of the crash that will be investigated and verified. There is a lot of work ahead. It could take a whole week to gather evidence, there will be no quick answers,” said Paulauskas.