Plane crashes in Lithuania: black boxes found, German authorities arrived in Vilnius to investigate

Accident or sabotage? After the accident of the DHL cargo plane which cost the life of a man of Spanish origin, Monday November 25, in Lithuania, many unclear areas surround this crash. They could be lifted in the coming days. Because investigators found, this Tuesday, November 25, the black boxes of the wreckage which crashed the day before near Vilnius, as announced by the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice.

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Very quickly, suspicions of possible sabotage arose as the plane arrived from the German city of Leipzig. Lithuanian authorities are investigating alleged planting of incendiary devices on cargo planes while failing to link the accident to ongoing investigations.

German investigators on site

Lithuania's Justice Ministry said in a statement that the flight recorders were “recovered from the wreckage of the plane” around 11:30 a.m. local time. 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.

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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.