By Alexander Welscher and Holger Mehlig, dpa
LEIPZIG – An aircraft flying from the city of Leipzig on behalf of German logistics giant DHL crashed near Vilnius airport on Monday, with at least one person killed, according to police.
The person who died was a Spanish citizen, police said. Three other people who were on the plane – another Spaniard, a German and a Lithuanian – were wounded and taken to hospital. There were reportedly only four people on the aircraft.
The head of the Lithuanian rescue service, Renatas Požėla, said at a press conference that the plane crashed a few kilometres from the airport, skidded several hundred metres, and its debris hit a residential building. The area is not densely populated.
The aircraft missed the house “by chance,” said Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas. Following the crash, a fire broke out, and 12 residents were evacuated from the building. Požėla said that the fire had been contained and was no longer spreading.
Investigations are under way to determine whether the crash was due to “technical problems,” the head of the National Crisis Management Centre said.
German investigators are also taking part, with staff at the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation set to arrive on Monday evening, a spokesman for the Transport Ministry told journalists in Berlin.
DHL said that the plane had been attempting an emergency landing. There is no evidence so far that the crash was the result of sabotage or a terrorist attack, Lithuanian Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas told journalists. The investigation could take “about a week,” he said.
Earlier, Lithuania’s police chief said a terrorist attack could not be ruled out.
Emergency services were first alerted to the crash at 5:31 am (0231 GMT). Many of the plane’s parts were scattered after the impact, a Lithuanian radio journalist reported from the accident scene in the Liepkalnis district.
Germany had issued warning to logistics firms
At the end of August, German security authorities started warning about “unconventional incendiary devices” being sent by unknown individuals using parcel service providers.
At the time, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, known by its German acronym BfV, and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) issued an alert about the apparent threat to companies in the aviation and logistics sector.
The warning was reportedly linked in security circles to an incident at the DHL logistics centre in Leipzig, which serves as the company’s global hub. In July, a package sent from the Baltic States, which reportedly contained an incendiary device, is said to have caught fire there.
The warning from BfV and BKA did not mention Russia. Nonetheless, security sources have reportedly not ruled out a connection, given the increasing cases of Russian sabotage in Germany. There was no initial information about any link between Monday’s crash and a possible sabotage event.
