VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A DHL cargo plane crashed on approach to an airport in Lithuania's capital and skidded into a nearby house Monday morning, leaving at least one person dead, officials said. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
The head of the country's firefighting service said that the plane skidded for a few hundred meters (yards), and photos showed smoke rising from a damaged structure in an area of barren trees.
“Residential infrastructure around the house was on fire, and the house was slightly damaged, but we managed to evacuate people," said Renatas Požėla, chief of the Fire and Rescue Department.
Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said two people had been taken to the hospital after the crash, and one was later pronounced dead.
The person who was killed was a member of the flight crew but not a pilot. Firefighters freed two pilots from the cockpit, one of whom was more seriously injured than the other, according to the General Commissioner of the Lithuanian Police, Arūnas Paulauskas.
Paulauskas told a news conference that the causes of the accident were not yet known. Authorities were investigating and Paulauskas said officers went to the hospital to speak with the crew members being treated to gather information.
The General Commissioner also said investigators are considering various possible causes, such technical failure and human error, and have not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist act.
“This is one of the versions that must be studied and checked,” Paulauskas said, according to LRT.
The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a DHL cargo plane arriving from Leipzig, Germany, which is a major freight hub. It posted on the social platform X that city services including a fire truck were on site.
Fragments of the plane in the company's trademark yellow color were visible in the wreckage.
Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24, analyzed by The Associated Press, showed the aircraft made a turn to the north of the airport, lining up for landing, before crashing a little more than 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) short of the runway.
Authorities did not immediately offer a cause for the crash, which happened just before 5:30 a.m local time. Weather at the airport was around freezing temperature, with clouds before sunrise and winds around 30 kph (18 mph).
DHL Group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The DHL aircraft was operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor. A representative from the company said it not have any immediate comment.
The Boeing 737 was 31 years old, which is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that’s not unusual for cargo flights.
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An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Renatas Požėla as the General Commission of Lithuanian police. He is the head of the Fire and Rescue Department.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Mindaugas Kulbis And Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press
