DHL cargo aircraft crashes near Vilnius, Lithuania
November 25, 2024
A DHL cargo aircraft has crashed into a house near the Lithuanian airport of Vilnius, prompting speculation of potential sabotage, although the cause of the accident remains under investigation.
Operated by Swiftair on behalf of DHL, scheduled service BCS18D had left Germany’s Leipzig around 02:00 UTC before crashing in a residential area just short of the runway at Vilnius approximately an hour and a half later. Local CCTV footage shows the 737-400 disappearing from sight beyond the treeline before an ensuing fireball erupts. The aircraft is then believed to have slid hundreds of meters into a house in the capital’s Pea Street.
As reported by Reuters, officials reported that one member of flight crew was killed and three others injured, with CNN adding that local authorities had safely evacuated another 12 people in the house. The Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Department also told CNN that three rescued crew members – one Lithuanian, one German and Spanish – remain in hospital.
“The city’s special services are working at the scene of the incident and rescue operations are also attended by the Vilnius, Airport Fire Service crews,” confirmed the airport. Although aircraft are currently taking off from Vilnius airport, one service on route from Hurghada was diverted to Riga.
A spokesperson from Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre indicated there was nothing to suggest an explosion preceded the crash, telling Reuters: “At the moment we don’t have any data that there was an explosion”. CNN also reported that Lithuania’s counter-intelligence chief Darius Jauniskis told a press conference: “We cannot reject the possibility of terrorism … but at the moment we can’t make attributions or point fingers, because we don’t have such information”.
Flightradar 24 information indicates that the CFM56-powered 737-400, registered EC-MFE, was built in 1993. It was converted to cargo configuration and acquired by Swiftair in 2015.
