Cargo plane crashes in Vilnius, one person killed

A cargo plane flying from Leipzig in Germany crashed in Vilnius at around 05:30 on Monday, one of the four crew members onboard was killed. 

"One crew member was found without any signs of life, two were rescued, they were taken to hospital," said Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the country's National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC). The authorities later updated the number of those onboard to four.

The pilot, a 48-year-old Spanish national, was killed in the crash, the police later confirmed to the Elta news agency. The other pilot, a 34-year-old Spanish national, a 55-year-old German national, and a 34-year-old Lithuanian national were injured in the crash. One person of those injured is in critical condition.

According to Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas, the plane missed a residential house "by chance" and crashed in the courtyard, but the debris set the two-storey building on fire. "All the [13] residents of the house are safe and have been evacuated," said Benkunskas.

The emergency services battled the blaze at the scene.

A video recorded by a CCTV camera showed a fireball erupting after the plane disappeared from view.

The Boeing 737-476(SF) plane, operated by DHL’s Spanish contractor Swiftair, was flying from Germany’s Leipzig to Lithuania.

Earlier this year, two self-igniting parcels shipped from Lithuania via DHL caused fires in a logistics centre in the German city.

Mindaugas Pivoriūnas, CEO of DHL Lietuva, confirmed to LRT.lt that the plane belonged to the company’s contractor. He said the cause of the accident or the nature of the cargo was not yet clear.

According to Vitkauskas from NKVC, the cause of the crash is being investigated as being related to "technical issues".

"In the current geopolitical context, we look at every incident differently than before, but I ask you to refrain from jumping to conclusions," the outgoing prime minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, said in a statement on social media.

Vilnius Airport continues operating as usual, some flights have been delayed.

The weather conditions on Monday morning were regular, according to an aviation expert. "These were [regular] working conditions and the weather did not pose any major challenges for the pilots," Vincas Šnirpūnas, lecturer at the Antanas Gustaitis Aviation Institute in Vilnius, told LRT.

An emergency message was sent to mobile phones in Vilnius, warning people to avoid the area around Liepkalnis due to road closures.

Terrorism ‘cannot be ruled out’

The crash was "most likely due to a technical fault or a human error", said Arūnas Paulauskas, head of the Lithuanian Police. "The plane was landing and failed to reach the runway, these are the facts."

Paulauskas said terrorism "cannot be ruled out".

"This is one of the versions of the crash, which will be investigated and checked. There is a lot of work ahead. The collection of evidence can take the whole week, there will not be quick answers," said Paulauskas.

Lithuania’s intelligence agency, the State Security Department, also said it was too early to make conclusions about the cause of the incident.

"At this stage, based on what we know, it’s probably too early to link it to anything or make any attributions," Darius Jauniškis, head of the agency, told reporters.

"We certainly see Russia becoming more aggressive and foreign partners have also talked about dangers and cases of sabotage or the threat of terrorism," he said. "We cannot rule this out either."

Lithuania’s Justice Ministry confirmed to the Baltic News Service it had opened a pre-trial investigation into the incident.

"This [probe] is mandatory under EU regulations," Laurynas Naujokaitis from the ministry’s Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division told BNS.

"While the pre-trial authorities are looking at who is guilty [...], our focus is on preventing future accidents," he said.

The probe could take "at least a year", Naujokaitis added.

Police investigators are now at the hospital, hoping to speak to the pilot, the authorities said.

"When the officers, who have already gone [to the hospital] talk to the surviving crew members, examine all the black boxes, it will become clear what happened inside the plane. Whether it was a technical error, pilot error, or something else," said Lithuania’s outgoing defence minister, Laurynas Kasčiūnas.

So far, however, there was no indication that the incident was linked to sabotage.

"There are no signs or evidence suggesting this was sabotage or a terrorist act," Kasčiūnas told reporters, adding that the initial investigation "could take about a week ".

"The officers say it could take that long, but I think we’ll have some clearer details in the coming days," the minister said.

In a statement on social media, President Gitanas Nausėda said "we must be prepared for all situations."

"We do not know what the conclusions of the investigation will be, but what is clear is that we will never panic or make decisions that are not based on facts. Let us trust the institutions and officers," he added.

DHL: ‘Emergency landing’

In a statement on Monday, DHL said the plane made an emergency landing.

"We can confirm that the Swiftair plane [...] made an emergency landing around one kilometre from Vilnius Airport," the company said. "There were four people onboard, the condition of the crew members is being clarified."

Audio recordings released

A conversation between the pilots and Vilnius air traffic controllers appeared on social media. According to aviation expert Vidas Kaupelis, the pilots did not seem alarmed.

"Without going into details, it is possible to say that the pilots did not declare any danger, no problems. It was a routine communication, a simple descent," said Kaupelis, who listened to the recording.

According to him, such conversations between pilots and air traffic controllers are usually available on Liveatc.net and are not confidential.

CCTV footage shows final seconds before the Vilnius plane crash: pic.twitter.com/pBAjhAkIOF

— LRT English (@LRTenglish) November 25, 2024

No indication of crash related to parcel warning – Berlin

There is no indication that the crash was connected to a prior warning by German authorities about packages containing incendiary devices, a German Interior Ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Monday.

"We will have to wait for the investigations to be completed," the spokesperson said.

In August, German authorities sounded a warning that parcels had caught fire en route across Europe and more could be in circulation.

According to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, however, the crash of the DHL cargo plane in Lithuania could have been an accident or a "hybrid incident".

"Now we have to seriously ask ourselves whether it was an accident or another hybrid incident," she told reporters at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Italy. She was referring to the damaged telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea, which officials said could have been sabotage.

"We have seen a number of hybrid attacks in Europe recently, often targeting individuals and infrastructure, both underwater and physical," Baerbock added.

Medics: ‘We were lucky’

The first responders told LRT RADIO they saw that the cockpit had separated from the rest of the aircraft, which was on fire.

"We were lucky that the cockpit [...] was separated from the source of the fire and [...] the people were not engulfed in flames," said Božena Jerenkevič, one of the first medics at the scene.

They were then contacted by a Lithuanian-speaking member of the crew who told them there were four people inside and that it was a cargo plane, she added.

A witness also told LRT RADIJAS that two people exited the plane after it crashed. "The ambulance picked them up," the woman said.

No sign of suspicious packages – DHL Lietuva

DHL said the company has no knowledge of any suspicious cargo on board the plane.

"So far, we certainly have no data to confirm anything suspicious that would lead us to suspect that it could have been some kind of incident. While the investigation is underway, we have nothing and we are not commenting on anything yet, we don’t want to speculate," Aušra Rutkauskienė, sales and marketing director of DHL Lietuva, told BNS.

Police: It was a regular landing

The plane was making a regular landing, according to Paulauskas, chief of Lithuania’s police.

"The initial assessment is that the plane did not crash, but was making a landing," Paulauskas told reporters on Monday afternoon.

"There is no visual evidence of any external damage. According to the initial data, there is no evidence that anything happened inside the aircraft. Of course, all versions are being investigated, but the initial data show that there is a low probability that it was some kind of external force," he added.

The officers already spoke to one of the crew members in the hospital who confirmed there was nothing unusual aboard the plane like fire or smoke, Paulauskas said.

GPS jamming ruled out – authorities

Vitkauskas from the National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC) ruled out GPS jamming as a potential cause of the crash.

"Vilnius Airport has other technical means to ensure navigation and this airplane did not need a GPS [signal]," Vitkauskas told BNS. "It would not make sense to stick to this version [of the cause]."

Russia was previously accused of jamming the GPS signal in the Baltic states as part of Moscow’s ongoing alleged sabotage operations in the region, with officials saying this carried a flight safety risk.

"These [GPS] disturbances are constantly being recorded. But at the time of the accident, we did not see any such disturbances," he added.

Vitkauskas also dismissed DHL’s claims that the plane made an emergency landing.

Investigators arriving from Spain, Germany

Two safety investigators are coming to Lithuania from Spain and four from Germany, Naujokaitis from the Interior Ministry told the 15min news website on Monday evening.

The American authorities have also been informed because the Boeing aircraft was made in the United States.

"The sole purpose of a safety investigation is to prevent accidents and incidents in the future, not to determine who is at fault or responsible," Naujokaitis said. "Who is at fault and responsible is determined by the judicial authorities. Our investigation is focused solely on aviation safety and is independent of other pre-trial investigations that aim to determine who is at fault."