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A DHL cargo plane crashed on approach to an airport in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, early Monday morning and skidded into a nearby house, resulting in at least one crew member’s death. The cause of the crash is currently under investigation.
According to the head of Lithuania’s firefighting service, the plane skidded for several hundred meters, and images from the scene showed smoke rising from a damaged building amidst barren trees.
Surveillance footage from a nearby business captured the plane descending normally as it approached the airport, but moments later, it erupted into a massive fireball behind a building. The exact point of impact was not visible in the video.
Rescue teams secured the area, and remnants of the plane, identifiable by its DHL yellow livery, were scattered across the crash site.
Renatas Požėla, head of the Fire and Rescue Department, reported that while the house sustained minor damage and nearby residential structures caught fire, all residents were safely evacuated.
One witness, identified only as Svaja, described seeing a blinding red light followed by an explosion and thick black smoke. “I saw a fireball,” she said, adding that her initial reaction was to prepare for the worst, fearing the outbreak of war.
Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, quoting emergency officials, confirmed that two people were hospitalized after the incident, with one later dying from their injuries. The deceased was a member of the flight crew but not the pilot. Firefighters were able to extricate two pilots from the cockpit, one of whom sustained serious injuries.
The Lithuanian Police General Commissioner, Arūnas Paulauskas, stated that investigators are exploring various potential causes of the crash, including mechanical failure, human error, and even the possibility of a terrorist attack.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737, had been traveling from Leipzig, Germany, a major freight hub. According to flight-tracking data, the plane was about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from the runway when it crashed. The incident occurred just before 5:30 a.m., under freezing temperatures, cloudy skies, and winds of about 30 km/h (18 mph).
The plane was operated by Swiftair, a Spanish airline contractor for DHL, and was 31 years old, which is considered older for a commercial aircraft, though not uncommon for cargo flights.
DHL Group and Swiftair have yet to provide further comments.
