Lithuanian police at the crash site of a DHL cargo plane, near Vilnius international airport, November 25, 2024 (AFP / Petras Malukas)
Investigators found on Tuesday the black boxes of the DHL cargo plane which crashed the day before near Vilnius, the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice announced.
The plane arriving from the German city of Leipzig crashed Monday morning near Vilnius airport, killing a Spanish crew member and raising fears that the accident was linked to a recent series of acts of sabotage.
The authorities of this Baltic country are investigating alleged acts of planting incendiary devices on cargo planes while refraining from establishing a link between the accident and ongoing investigations.
Lithuania's Justice Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the flight recorders were “recovered from the wreckage of the plane” around 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT).
Analysis of the data could provide crucial clues about the causes of the crash in which the plane hit an apartment building about a kilometer from the airport.
The ministry also said that German officials had arrived in Lithuania to take part in the investigation. The authorities are also awaiting the arrival of experts from the United States and Spain.
According to the head of the national police, Arunas Paulauskas, the investigation at the scene of the accident could take two or three days.
Lithuania has opened a criminal investigation into the accident, as Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte urged people not to “jump to conclusions” while the investigation is ongoing.
“We must now seriously ask ourselves whether this is an accident or another hybrid incident,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, however, later indicated that there was “no discovery” indicating the presence of an explosive charge on board the plane which could have caused the accident.
