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A DHL cargo plane crashed early Monday morning while attempting to land at Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, resulting in one fatality and three injuries among those onboard.
Remarkably, there were no casualties on the ground despite the aircraft skidding into a residential building.
The Boeing 737-400, operated by Swiftair on behalf of DHL, was en route from Leipzig, Germany, when it crashed at approximately 3:30 a.m. GMT during its final approach to the airport.
A spokesperson for Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center confirmed the incident and ruled out an explosion prior to the crash. “At the moment, we don’t have any data that there was an explosion,” the spokesperson said.
The crash site revealed a devastating scene, with the plane splitting into pieces and sliding over 100 meters (110 yards) before colliding with a house. Lithuanian rescue services confirmed that 12 residents were evacuated from the building, all unharmed.
One crew member on the plane was killed, and three others sustained injuries, rescue officials reported.
While the cause of the crash remained under investigation, Lithuanian authorities have not ruled out potential foul play. “We cannot reject the possibility of terrorism,” said counter-intelligence chief Darius Jauniskis. “But at the moment, we can’t make attributions or point fingers, because we don’t have such information.”
Police and prosecutors were leading the investigation to determine the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, Vilnius Airport operations resumed following a temporary disruption caused by the incident.
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