DHL Cargo Plane Crashes Near Airport in Lithuania, Killing 1

A DHL cargo plane crashed in a residential area near Vilnius Airport in Lithuania, killing one person on board and setting a house ablaze, officials said.

The Lithuanian authorities said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

The Boeing 737 plane had departed from Leipzig, Germany, and crashed near Vilnius Airport at about 5:30 a.m., the airport said in a statement.

It burst into flames and set a two-story home on fire, according to Renata Liaudanskiene, a spokeswoman for Lithuania’s Fire and Rescue Department. She said that no one in the house was injured but that three people were pulled from the wreckage of the plane and taken to a hospital.

A fourth person who was on board the plane was killed in the crash, according to the Lithuanian authorities. .

Arunas Paulauskas, the commissioner general of Lithuania’s police, said at a news conference that the aircraft was “completely wrecked.”

“The cargo it was carrying is scattered over a large area,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Darius Jauniškis, chief of Lithuanian intelligence, said that among the possibilities they are investigating is sabotage, while stressing that there is no evidence of that.

“Without a doubt, we cannot rule out the terrorism version,” he said.

Based on current information, U.S. officials said they believe the crash was an accident and not Russian sabotage. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

A surveillance camera near the airport captured the moment of the crash. It showed the lights of a plane descending lower and lower before disappearing behind warehouses, followed by an explosion that illuminates the dark sky and a rising column of smoke.

Photographs from the scene later on Monday showed emergency workers walking between bare trees near the crash site. Parts of what appeared to be the plane’s yellow siding are visible, and cardboard packages are scattered across the snowy ground.

A spokesman for DHL confirmed that an aircraft operated for the company by a third-party carrier, Swiftair, had “made a forced landing” near Vilnius Airport.

“The cause of the accident is still unknown, and an investigation is underway,” the spokesman, Nicholas Leong, said in an email.

Tomas Dapkus contributed reporting from Vilnius.