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29 November 2024
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DHL Vilnius aircraft crash in Lithuania leaves authorities searching for answers
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A DHL cargo plane crashed as it came in to land at Lithuania's Vilnius airport on Monday morning, 25 November 2024, killing one person in what Germany's foreign minister later said could be an accident or a hybrid attack in "volatile times". The three other people onboard were injured and at least one of them was in critical condition. Flames and smoke engulfed the wrecked aircraft as fire crews worked to extinguish the fire. The Swiftair Flight 5960 (operating as European Air Transport Leipzig Flight 18D) was flying from Leipzig/Halle Airport in Leipzig, Germany, to Vilnius Airport in Vilnius, Lithuania, was on approach when it crashed into the ground short of the runway, near a two-storey house in Liepkalnis. One crew member was killed and the other three were injured.
The Boeing 737-400 jet, which went down at 03h30 GMT, was operated by airline Swiftair on behalf of DHL, a German logistics group and had left Leipzig, Germany at 02h08 GMT, according to Flightradar24.
The US National Transportation Safety Board is leading a team of board investigators that will also include Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration to travel to Lithuania to assist with Lithuania's Ministry of Justice Transport and Accident investigation of the crash.
No one on the ground was injured.
In a statement, DHL said the plane, which was arriving from Leipzig, "made a forced landing" about one kilometre (0.6 mile) from VNO airport and that the cause of the crash was still unknown.
Lithuanian officials said there was no indication of sabotage so far, though Germany is investigating several fires caused by incendiary devices hidden inside parcels at a warehouse in Leipzig for delivery by DHL earlier this year. German authorities were investigating Monday's crash as well.
Aircraft broke into pieces on impact
Security camera footage showed an aircraft descending behind a warehouse after which the night sky was lit up in bright red and orange, followed by plumes of thick dark smoke.
Rescue services said the plane hit the ground, split into pieces and slid over 100 metres (110 yards). Some debris hit a house, whose 14 occupants were later evacuated.
"Only these investigations will answer questions on the real reasons of the incident. Speculations and guesses will really not help to determine the truth," Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said in a statement.
Standard parcels
A Lithuanian police spokesperson said one person onboard, a Spanish citizen, was killed and three others, Spanish, German and Lithuanian citizens, were injured.
DHL has launched its own investigation into the crash, a spokesperson for the company's Lithuanian arm said.
"The aircraft (carried) regular parcels. We do not have any information that any of them were suspicious," she said.
The aircraft was 31 years old, according to a Flightradar24 database. Boeing was seeking more information and would provide any support, a Boeing spokesperson said.
Apart from the German investigations, British police are probing a warehouse fire in Birmingham 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.
European countries have repeatedly expressed concerns about the vulnerability of civilian infrastructure, misgivings which also reared their head after the unexplained severing of two fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea last week. "The fact that we, together with our Lithuanian and Spanish partners, must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or, after last week, another hybrid incident shows what volatile times we are currently living in, even in the centre of Europe," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.
Sources: Reuters, CNN
The Boeing 737-400 jet, which went down at 03h30 GMT, was operated by airline Swiftair on behalf of DHL, a German logistics group and had left Leipzig, Germany at 02h08 GMT, according to Flightradar24.
The US National Transportation Safety Board is leading a team of board investigators that will also include Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration to travel to Lithuania to assist with Lithuania's Ministry of Justice Transport and Accident investigation of the crash.
No one on the ground was injured.
In a statement, DHL said the plane, which was arriving from Leipzig, "made a forced landing" about one kilometre (0.6 mile) from VNO airport and that the cause of the crash was still unknown.
Lithuanian officials said there was no indication of sabotage so far, though Germany is investigating several fires caused by incendiary devices hidden inside parcels at a warehouse in Leipzig for delivery by DHL earlier this year. German authorities were investigating Monday's crash as well.
Aircraft broke into pieces on impact
Security camera footage showed an aircraft descending behind a warehouse after which the night sky was lit up in bright red and orange, followed by plumes of thick dark smoke.
Rescue services said the plane hit the ground, split into pieces and slid over 100 metres (110 yards). Some debris hit a house, whose 14 occupants were later evacuated.
"Only these investigations will answer questions on the real reasons of the incident. Speculations and guesses will really not help to determine the truth," Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said in a statement.
Standard parcels
A Lithuanian police spokesperson said one person onboard, a Spanish citizen, was killed and three others, Spanish, German and Lithuanian citizens, were injured.
DHL has launched its own investigation into the crash, a spokesperson for the company's Lithuanian arm said.
"The aircraft (carried) regular parcels. We do not have any information that any of them were suspicious," she said.
The aircraft was 31 years old, according to a Flightradar24 database. Boeing was seeking more information and would provide any support, a Boeing spokesperson said.
Apart from the German investigations, British police are probing a warehouse fire in Birmingham 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.
European countries have repeatedly expressed concerns about the vulnerability of civilian infrastructure, misgivings which also reared their head after the unexplained severing of two fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea last week. "The fact that we, together with our Lithuanian and Spanish partners, must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or, after last week, another hybrid incident shows what volatile times we are currently living in, even in the centre of Europe," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.
Sources: Reuters, CNN