Germany One dead in plane crash in Lithuania - search for cause

One person was killed in the early morning crash of a cargo plane on behalf of the postal service provider DHL shortly before its planned landing in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. While numerous rescue teams were deployed at the scene of the accident, the search for the cause began. Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas told journalists that there were no indications so far that the accident was the result of sabotage or a terrorist attack. The investigation could "take about a week".

The emergency services were alerted at 5.31 a.m. local time. A total of four people were on the plane. The fatality was a passenger of Spanish nationality, the police confirmed. However, it is still unclear whether it was the pilot. The other three crew members included a Lithuanian, a German and another Spaniard. The authorities did not initially provide any further information on the medical condition of the injured. According to the Lithuanian news agency Elta, the police have not yet been able to confirm the ages of the occupants.

The plane, which had taken off from Leipzig, crashed close to a residential building with sleeping people. They were rescued from the burning building. Numerous rescue workers were deployed at the scene of the accident.

Expert: Routine communication

According to a report by Lithuanian radio, the evaluation of the communication between the pilot and the tower does not indicate an emergency or other irregularities during the landing approach. The published recording shows a completely calm and routine conversation, according to a Lithuanian aviation expert interviewed by the radio station.

"Without going into details, we can say that the pilots did not report any danger or problems. It was a routine communication, a simple descent," said Vidas Kaupelis from Vilnius University after listening to the recording.

German security authorities are also investigating

Defense Minister Kasciunas said that only after the investigating officials had spoken to the surviving crew members and evaluated the flight recorder would it be clear what had happened. German investigators are also involved in the search for the cause of the accident following the crash of a cargo plane. The Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation will support the investigation on site in Lithuania, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Transport told journalists in Berlin. Colleagues would be on duty there from the evening.

The cargo plane that crashed was operated by the Spanish airline Swift Air, according to DHL. Swift Air works under contract for DHL. The crew had to initiate an emergency landing about one kilometer from Vilnius airport. "Our thoughts are with them and their families," said a DHL spokesperson. The head of the National Crisis Management Center, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, described the situation differently in an interview. In the event of an emergency landing, there should be a warning to the air traffic controllers. "I didn't hear anything like that, unless we heard something wrong, but we were very surprised to read this message," he said.

According to the head of sales and marketing at DHL Lithuania, the plane was a Boeing 737 and was transporting parcels for customers, she told the BNS news agency. Pictures of the accident site showed a few parcels and broken boxes. The plane was completely destroyed, a spokeswoman for the Lithuanian rescue service told the Elta news agency.

President visits accident site

Meanwhile, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda visited the site of the accident. Together with the German ambassador Cornelius Zimmermann and his Spanish colleague María Nieves Blanco Díaz, the head of state of the Baltic EU country visited the crash site near Vilnius Airport and also spoke to local residents.

What led to the accident?

Police chief Arunas Paulauskas said that the officers had already spoken to one of the injured crew members in hospital. He confirmed that nothing unusual had happened on board the plane - there was no smoke, fire or anything else. Earlier, Paulauskas had said that inspecting the scene, gathering evidence and collecting information and objects could take a whole week. "These answers will not come so quickly," he said at a press conference. The plane tried to land and did not reach the runway, Paulauskas said. The crash was "most likely due to a technical error or human error". At the same time, when asked whether it could also have been a terrorist attack, he said that such a scenario could not be ruled out. "This is one of the versions of the crash that needs to be investigated and verified. There is still a lot of work ahead of us."

According to Lithuanian media, the head of the Lithuanian intelligence service, Darius Jauniskis, said: "At this stage, as far as we know, it is probably too early to link the incident to anything or to attribute anything to it."

According to the postal service provider DHL, it has not yet received any information about suspicious packages on board the plane. "At this stage, we have no information indicating anything unusual or suspicious," said Ausra Rutkauskiene, Head of Sales and Marketing at DHL Lithuania.

The head of the Lithuanian rescue service, Renatas Pozela, said that the cargo plane crashed a few kilometers from the airport, skidded several hundred meters and its debris hit a residential house. The house had two floors and four apartments. Three families lived there. All twelve residents are safe.

German security authorities issued a warning

At the end of August, it became known that German security authorities were warning of "unconventional incendiary devices" being sent by unknown persons via freight service providers. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) sent out a corresponding warning to companies in the aviation and logistics sector.

The warning was linked in security circles to an incident at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig, which acts as the company's global hub. In July, a parcel sent from the Baltic States containing an incendiary device is said to have caught fire there.

The word Russia did not appear in the warning from the BfV and BKA. Nevertheless, security circles are not ruling out a connection with the increasing cases of Russian sabotage in Germany.

SDA