On the ground, the debris of burning boxes, pieces of carcasses and an engine… Monday, around 3:30 a.m., a DHL cargo plane crashed in Vilnius, Lithuania, after attempting to land emergency. One of the two pilots died. “One crew member was found without any signs of life, two were rescued and taken to hospital,” said Vilmantas Vitkauskas, director of the country’s National Crisis Management Center (NKVC), as quoted by the public channel LRT.
The pilot who died in the crash was a Spanish citizen, police confirmed to the Elta news agency on Monday morning. The other three crew members were a Lithuanian, a German and another Spaniard. According to the mayor of Vilnius, Valdas Benkunskas, the plane crashed a stone’s throw from a house which escaped the worst “by chance”. “All 12 residents of the house are safe and have been evacuated,” said Valdas Benkunskas.
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An ongoing investigation
The cause of the incident is currently unknown, and “an investigation is already underway,” DHL said. The Boeing 737-476 (SF) aircraft, operated by DHL’s Spanish subcontractor Swiftair, was flying from Leipzig in Germany to Lithuania. According to Wilmant Vitkauskas, the cause of the crash is under investigation, as it is believed to be linked to “technical problems”. “In the current geopolitical context, we view each incident differently than before, but I ask you to refrain from jumping to conclusions,” outgoing Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said in a statement on social media.
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Police investigators are currently at the hospital, hoping to speak to the pilot. The accident is “probably due to a technical failure or human error”, also said Arūnas Paulauskas, head of the Lithuanian police. “The plane was landing and could not reach the runway, those are the facts,” he added. However, he explained that terrorism “cannot be ruled out”.
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