A cargo plane flying from Leipzig, Germany, crashed in Vilnius at around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, killing one of the two pilots. The crash of the DHL plane did not cause any casualties among Vilnius residents.
"One crew member was found with no signs of life, two were rescued, they were taken to hospital," He told Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the country's National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC).
The pilot who died in the crash was a Spanish citizen, police confirmed to Elta later on Monday morning. The other three crew members were a Lithuanian, a German and another Spanish citizen.
According to the mayor of Vilnius. Valdase Benkunskase the plane "accidentally" missed the house and crashed into the yard. "All 12 residents of the house are safe and have been evacuated," Benkunskas said.
"None of the residents of the area near Vilnius airport where the DHL cargo plane crashed were injured," He said Vitkauskas told reporters.
"Fortunately, the plane did not crash into the two-storey building, as previously reported, but into its vicinity. None of the residents were injured," He added. Twelve people were evacuated from the site.
The fire was fought by the emergency services at the scene.
The Boeing 737-476(SF), operated by DHL's Spanish contractor Swiftair, was flying from Leipzig, Germany, to Lithuania.
Earlier this year, two spontaneous combustion mechanisms transported from Lithuania via DHL caused a fire in a logistics centre in Leipzig.
Mindaugas Pivoriūnas, CEO of DHL Lietuva, confirmed to LRT.lt that the plane belonged to the company's supplier. He said that neither the cause of the accident nor the nature of the cargo was yet clear.
According to Vitkauskas of the NKVC, the cause of the accident is being investigated as related to "technical problems".
Vilnius Airport continues to operate as normal, but some flights have been delayed and one flight to Riga, Latvia, has been cancelled.
An emergency alert message has been sent to mobile phones in Vilnius warning people to avoid the area around Liepkalnis due to road closures.
Terrorism "cannot be ruled out"
Police investigators are now at the hospital hoping to talk to the pilot.
The accident was "most likely due to a technical fault or human error", said Arūnas Paulauskasthe head of the Lithuanian police.
"The plane was landing and didn't reach the runway, those are the facts," He added.
Paulauskas added that terrorism "cannot be ruled out".
"This is one of the versions of the crash that will be investigated and verified. We have a lot of work to do. Gathering evidence could take a whole week, there will be no quick answers," Paulauskas said.
Lithuania's intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security, also said it was too early to draw conclusions about the cause of the incident.
"At this stage, based on what we know, it's probably too early to link it to anything or attribute anything," the head of the agency told reporters Darius Jauniškis.
He added that "we cannot rule out the possibility of terrorism".
Traffic restrictions in Vilnius
On Monday morning, due to the crash of a cargo plane restricted traffic in the Liepkalnis district of Vilnius.
According to police, traffic was closed from Liepkalnio Street to Zirnių Street as a large number of police officers and rescue workers were working at the scene of the plane crash.
Officials later announced that traffic had resumed.
According to the JUDU traffic monitoring system, 10 traffic jams were recorded in Vilnius before 8:00 and seven traffic restrictions were imposed. The most complicated traffic situation was in Liepkalnio, Žirnių, Tūkstantmečio, Dariaus and Girėno streets and on the Eišis highway.
JUDU informs that public transport on Liepkalnio Street is running but may be delayed.
"Delays on public transport are possible, so we recommend planning your journeys with time to spare." JUDU wrote on Facebook.
Mayor Benkunskas said a state of emergency would be declared in Vilnius on Monday following the crash of a DHL cargo plane.
"We will urgently declare a state of emergency in the area in order to ensure the rapid liquidation of the consequences of the accident - cleaning up the area, collecting harmful materials," Benkunskas said in a statement released Monday morning.
LRT/ gnews - RoZ
PHOTO - Facebook LRT
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