Lithuania: DHL plane crashed – Baerbock does not rule out act of sabotage

After the fatal crash of a DHL freight plane coming from Leipzig in Lithuania, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) did not rule out the possibility of an act of sabotage. “The fact that we, together with our Lithuanian and Spanish partners, now have to seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or another hybrid incident after last week shows what volatile times (…) we are currently living in,” said Baerbock on Monday at the G-7 foreign ministers meeting in Fiuggi, Italy.

The cargo plane crashed early on Monday morning during an emergency landing near the airport in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. One member of the four-person crew, a Spaniard, died in the incident and the three other passengers were injured. When the plane crashed just outside the airport, it narrowly missed a residential building with sleeping people. Numerous rescue workers were on duty.

The minister emphasized several times that the authorities in Germany and Lithuania are currently examining all options in their investigations. In Europe there have recently been several “hybrid attacks” on individuals or infrastructure, said Baerbock. That is why the protection of critical infrastructure is particularly important now.

After the crash, Baerbock did not make any direct allegations against any individual or country. However, with a view to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, she added: “The Russian president will not do us a favor by taking into account that Christmas is just around the corner or even the federal election in Germany.”

Germany will also send investigators to the crash site. The Federal Office for 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 that evening. According to Lithuanian information, four experts will be sent by the German side. Spain will also assign two investigators, it said.

Emergency services were informed of the crash at 5:28 a.m. local time. According to DHL, the crew had to make an emergency landing in front of Vilnius airport. The crashed cargo plane was a 31-year-old plane belonging to the Spanish airline Swift Air, DHL said. Swift Air operates under contract for DHL.

According to the sales and marketing manager of DHL Lithuania, the aircraft was a Boeing 737. The plane was transporting packages for customers, she told the BNS news agency. In pictures from the scene of the accident, individual packages and boxes could be seen. The plane was completely destroyed, a spokeswoman for the Lithuanian rescue service told the Elta news agency.

What led to the accident?

According to Lithuanian police chief Arunas Paulauskas, the search for the cause of the crash will take some time. Inspecting the crime scene, collecting evidence and collecting information and objects could take a whole week.

Paulauskas said firefighters freed two pilots from the cockpit. Both are injured. The dead person was another crew member.

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 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.”

At the time of the accident, temperatures at the airport were around freezing before sunrise under cloudy skies. The wind speeds reached around 30 kilometers per hour.

A video circulating in the Lithuanian media purports to show the crash and does not suggest an explosion in the air.

Recordings that documented communication between the pilot and air traffic control also provide no indication of a possible fire or other incident in the cockpit. The pilot’s last message to the tower, a few minutes before the crash, is a routine confirmation of the radio frequency change. At around 5:30 a.m. an air traffic controller radioed another plane at Vilnius airport: “Cancel your takeoff. We have a crash on approach, so we will need some time.”

The head of Lithuania’s emergency services, Renatas Pozela, said the cargo plane crashed a few kilometers from the airport, then slid several hundred meters and its debris hit a residential building. The house has two floors and four apartments. Three families lived there. All twelve residents are safe.

A woman who lives near the affected house reported on Lithuanian radio that she was woken up early in the morning by a noise: “I heard a noise in my sleep, I looked out the window – everything was red and full of sparks “. She immediately ran to see if anyone needed help. She is in shock: the whole thing is “terrible, terrible.”

A neighbor told us what he saw in the yard at the time of the accident: “There was lightning. I didn’t see the impact itself, but the flash was very bright, it lit up the whole yard, and it was about a kilometer away from me. And then the fire appeared and there was a lot of smoke.”

Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said there was no evidence so far that the crash was a case of sabotage or a terrorist attack.

Even though it is currently assumed that there was a technical defect, politicians are calling for the cause of the accident to be carefully investigated. “Against the background of the known acts of sabotage using incendiary devices in DHL’s cargo, including at Leipzig Airport, this crash must be immediately investigated in detail,” said Konstantin von Notz (Greens), Chairman of the Parliamentary Control Committee for the Intelligence Services WELT.

Ex-BND agent Gerhard Conrad also told WELT: “It is still too early to assign concrete causes and blame, but the accident is fatally reminiscent of the incendiary devices in the DHL distribution center in Leipzig, but also in London in the summer of 2024. where suspicions of Russian-inspired sabotage had arisen.”