DHL cargo plane crashes near Vilnius airport in Lithuania

A cargo plane flying on behalf of German logistics company DHL crashed near Vilnius International Airport in Lithuania early on Monday, killing at least one person, according to Lithuanian officials.

The deceased person was confirmed by Lithuanian police to be a Spanish national and member of the flight crew, although not one of the pilots.

The other occupants of the plane — a German, a Lithuanian and another Spaniard — were reportedly injured, but their condition remained unclear.

What did DHL say?

"We can confirm that today, at approximately 4:30 am CET [0330 GMT], a Swiftair aircraft, operated by a service partner on behalf of DHL, performed an emergency landing about one kilometer from VNO Airport [Vilnius, Lithuania] while en route from LEJ Airport [Leipzig, Germany] to VNO Airport," the German company said.

A spokesperson for DHL Lithuania told the Reuters news agency that the company has opened an investigation, adding: "We do not have any information that any of the parcels onboard the crashed cargo plane were suspicious."

German investigators also said they were "in close contact with the involved parties at home and abroad in order to clarify the issue as soon as possible."

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing also said it was "working to gather more information" and stood "ready to provide any support."

Cause of the crash still unknown, terrorism not being ruled out

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but Lithuania's police chief Arunas Paulauskas did not rule out terrorism as a motive.

"This is one of the versions that needs to be investigated and verified. There is still much work ahead of us," Paulauskas said at a press briefing.

"These answers will not come so quickly," he added, saying that the crime scene probe, evidence collection, and gathering of information and objects could take an entire week. 

"Without a doubt, we cannot rule out the terrorism version," said Darius Jauniskis, chief of Lithuanian intelligence.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was not ruling out sabotage and said the question of whether it was a "hybrid incident" needed to be asked.

"We must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or whether it was another hybrid incident," Annalena Baerbock told reporters at a G7 foreign ministers," said Baerbock on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy.

According to data from rescue services, emergency crews were alerted about the crash at 5:28 a.m. local time (0328 GMT). 

Vinca Snirpunas, a lecturer at the Aviation Institute at Vilnius Tech University, told DW that based on early signs, "we don't see any evidence of sabotage or intentional actions causing this accident."

He said the plane was on a typical approach to Vilnius before encountering difficulties just a few kilometers from the ground.

"We saw that there was no contact established with the tower of the Vilnius airport. So, therefore, we can think that there were some difficulties during the operation or flying the aircraft just before the crash."

What do we know so far about the DHL crash? 

The plane, operated by Swiftair, had originated in the German city of Leipzig, which is a hub for DHL.  

"It fell a few kilometers before the airport, it just skidded for a few hundred meters, its debris somewhat caught a residential house," Renatas Pozela, the head of the Lithuanian rescue service said. 

"Residential infrastructure around the house was on fire, and the house was slightly damaged, but we managed to evacuate people," he added. 

Twelve residents were evacuated from the building, according to officials. 

Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said the plane missed the house "by chance" and crashed into the courtyard.

Series of cargo-related incidents

German security services warned back in August of "unconventional incendiary objects" being posted via cargo services.

Warnings were issued in connection to an object that caught fire at DHL's Leipzig logistics center in July, having reportedly been sent from the Baltic States.

Also in July, similar incidents were reported when devices caught fire at courier depots near Warsaw, Poland, and Birmingham in the United Kingdom, with Lithuanian Prosecutor General Nida Grunskiene saying that packages had originated in Lithuania.

Both Poland and Lithuania share borders with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, and sabotage was not ruled out.

"I can state that this is part of unconventional kinetic operations against NATO countries that are being undertaken by Russian military intelligence," Kestutis Budrys, a national security adviser to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, told the Reuters news agency earlier in November.

"We note that these operations are being escalated: their focus is moving ... to harming infrastructure and actions that could end up killing people," he added.

Moscow has denied the accusations.

kb,dvv/msh (Reuters, dpa, AP) 

Correction, 11.25.2024: A previous version of this article referred to Nida Grunskiene as the Polish prosecutor general instead of Lithuanian. This has now been corrected. We apologize for the error.