VILNIUS, Nov 25 (Reuters) – A DHL (DHLn.DE), opens new tab cargo plane crashed as it came into land at Lithuania’s Vilnius airport early on Monday, skidding into a house and killing one person on the aircraft.
The three other people onboard were injured but no one on the ground was hurt, officials said.
The scheduled flight was operated by airline Swiftair on behalf of DHL and had taken off from Leipzig, Germany.
It crashed around 0330 GMT while approaching the destination airport for landing, a spokesperson for Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said.
Police and prosecutors are investigating the incident but there was nothing to suggest an explosion preceded the crash, the spokesperson said.
“At the moment we don’t have any data that there was an explosion,” he said.
Counter-intelligence chief Darius Jauniskis 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.”
An airport spokesperson said the plane was a Boeing 737-400 (BA.N), opens new tab.
Rescue services said the plane hit the ground, split into pieces and slid over 100 metres (110 yards) before crashing into the building.
Smoke billows following a DHL cargo plane crash in Vilnius, Lithuania, November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Andrius Sytas Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
A Lithuanian rescue services spokesperson said one person onboard was killed and three injured.
Police told a press conference 12 people had been evacuated from the house hit by the plane. There were no casualties on the ground.
Firefighters poured water onto the smoking building some 1.3 km (0.8 mile) north of the airport runway and nearby streets were cordoned off.
DHL and Boeing have not yet replied to requests for comment.
The flight had departed from Leipzig at 0208 GMT, Flightradar24 said on X.
Germany is investigating several fires caused by incendiary devices hidden inside parcels at a warehouse in Leipzig earlier this year.
British counter-terrorism police are investigating a warehouse fire in July, caused by a package catching alight, and liaising with other European law enforcement agencies to see if there was a connection with similar incidents elsewhere.
Security officials have told Reuters parcels that exploded at logistics depots in Europe were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States.
Leipzig Airport operator Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG declined to comment on the crash.
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Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; additional reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Friederike Heine in Berlin, writing by Anna Ringstrom, Editing by Himani Sarkar, Kim Coghill, Michael Perry, Lincoln Feast and Bernadette Baum
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