Lithuania

One crew member died after a cargo plane crashed into a house and burst into flames as it was approaching to land at the Vilnius Airport in Lithuania on Monday (Nov. 25), officials said. 

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However, three others on board the flight, including the pilot, survived. Along with them, 12 people who were in the house at the time of the crash were also safely evacuated, the local authorities said. 

The three people who were rescued, including one Lithuanian national, one German, and one Spanish, are currently undergoing treatment in the hospital, the Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Department told CNN. 

Also read: Lithuanian kayaker rescued in Tasmania after a 20-hour rescue ordeal, leading to leg amputation

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The cargo plane was a Swiftair aircraft "operating under contract for DHL", the logistics company said in a statement to CNN. 

The Swiftair said the plane was a Boeing 737-400. 

The cargo plane took off from Leipzig, Germany, and was about to land at Vilnius Airport when it crashed a few kilometres from the runway. 

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Renatas Pozela, chief of the Fire and Rescue Department, said, the plane skidded on the ground for several hundred metres before hitting the house. 

“One crew member was found without any signs of life,” Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the country’s National Crisis Management Centre said, according to public broadcaster LRT.

The police and prosecutors are investigating the incident, but they have not suggested any explosion preceding the crash. 

“At the moment we don’t have any data that there was an explosion,” the spokesperson told Reuters.

During a press conference, Lithuania’s Counter-intelligence chief Darius Jauniskis said, “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.”

DHL said the plane “made a forced landing about one kilometre from VNO Airport.” It confirmed four people were onboard. “The cause of the accident is still unknown, and an investigation is underway." 

Meanwhile, the head of the Lithuanian Police, Arūnas Paulauskas, said the incident was “most likely due to a technical fault or a human error” but that terrorism “cannot be ruled out,” according to LRT.

“This is one of the versions of the crash, which will be investigated and checked. There is a lot of work ahead. The collection of evidence can take the whole week, there will not be quick answers,” Paulauskas said. 

(With inputs from agencies)