UPDATED: DHL cargo plane crashes near Vilnius airport
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A DHL cargo plane crashed near Lithuania’s Vilnius airport on Monday at about 0330 GMT, killing one person and injuring two others, airport, police and firefighter officials told Reuters.
The airplane, operated by SWIFT airline on behalf of DHL, originated from Leipzig, fell on a house, a spokesperson for the governmental National Crisis Management Center said. All of the people in the house survived, he added.
Firefighters were seen at 0530GMT pouring water onto smoke from a building some 1.3 km (0.8 mile) north of the airport runway in the Lithuanian capital. A large police and ambulance presence was seen nearby and several nearby major streets were cordoned off.
In July, shipments from Lithuania containing specially prepared devices disguised as massagers caught fire at two DHL logistics centers.
The Wall Street Journal reported, based on information from Western intelligence agencies, that two incendiary devices sent via DHL were part of a covert Russian operation aimed at setting on fire civilian aircraft in mid-air. The report notes that these devices exploded in July of this year at DHL logistics centers in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, UK.
Too early to say whether plane crash is linked to terrorist attack
Any attempts to link the plane crash in Vilnius to any hostile external activity are premature even though a terrorist attack cannot be ruled out yet, says the chief of Lithuania’s intelligence agency.
Darius Jauniškis, head of the State Security Department (VSD), had a meeting with President Gitanas Nausėda in the Presidential Palace on Monday morning, just a few hours after the deadly DHL cargo plane crash near Vilnius Airport. Police said the pilot killed during the Boeing 737-476 crash was a Spanish national. Those injured aboard were a Lithuanian, a German and another Spaniard, according to Ramūnas Matonis, spokesman for the Police Department.
“We cannot dismiss the case of, let us say, terrorism. Naturally, the State Security Department (VSD), together with the Department of Operational Services (the Second Department of Operational Services under the. Ministry of National Defence – ELTA), have also warned us that these things are possible in the future, and we are witnessing an increasingly aggressive Russia,” the VSD chief told reporters after the meeting.
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 take decisions that are not based on facts. Let us trust the institutions and officers,” he added.
