At least one person dead after DHL cargo plane crashes into house in Lithuania

Pictures online show a large explosion followed by a fireball near the airport with thick black smoke and flames seen rising above the tree line.

A DHL cargo plane has crashed into a house in Lithuania killing at least one person on Monday morning.

The Boeing 737 which was travelling from Leipzig, Germany was heading to Lithuania's capital city Vilnius when it crashed at around 5.30am local time (3.30am GMT), shortly before landing at the airport.

Local reports said three crew members, one Spanish, one German and one Lithuanian, including the pilots, survived the crash, as well as 12 members of the home who were safely evacuated.

One crew member, a Spanish citizen, was found dead according to the head of the country’s National Crisis Management Center, Vilmantas Vitkauskas.

All four on board are now accounted for. There were no reported casualties on the ground.

A piece of debris from the DHL cargo plane that crashed Credit: AP

Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said at least two crew members were taken to hospital with one later pronounced dead.

Renatas Požėla, the Head of the Fire and Rescue Department, told reporters: “It [the plane] fell a few kilometers before the airport, it just skidded for a few hundred meters, its debris somewhat caught a residential house.

"Residential infrastructure around the house was on fire, and the house was slightly damaged, but we managed to evacuate people.”

Pictures online show a large explosion followed by a fireball near the airport with thick black smoke and flames seen rising above the tree line.

Firefighters were later seen pouring water on the house near the crash site.

The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a DHL cargo plane arriving from Leipzig, Germany.

It also confirmed that all scheduled aircrafts are currently taking off from Vilnius airport.

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24, showed the aircraft made a turn to the north of the airport, lining up for landing, before crashing less than 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) short of the runway.

A cause for the crash has not been given by authorities.

The DHL cargo plane crashed into a house near the Lithuanian capital Credit: AP

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.

Lithuanian officials acknowledged that one line of inquiry will be whether Russia played a role given its suspected involvement in other cases of sabotage but stressed that there is no evidence pointing towards this theory.

“Without a doubt, we cannot rule out the terrorism version,” said Darius Jauniškis, chief of Lithuanian intelligence.

Polish prosecutors said last month that parcels with camouflaged explosives were sent via cargo companies to EU countries and Britain to “test the transfer channel for such parcels” that were ultimately destined for the U.S. and Canada.

“We see Russia becoming more aggressive,” Jauniškis said. “But for now, we really cannot make any attributions or point fingers at anyone, because there is no information about it.”

ITV News cannot independently verify what caused the explosion.

Smoke lingers across the crash site as emergency response units continue to work Credit: AP

DHL Group said the plane “made a forced landing about one kilometer from VNO Airport.” It confirmed four people were onboard and said “the status of the crew is still being clarified.”

“The cause of the accident is still unknown, and an investigation is underway,” DHL said.

After meeting with rescue officials, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said: “Thankfully, despite the crash occurring in a residential area, no lives have been lost among the local population."

“The responsible agencies are working diligently," she added.

"I urge everyone to have confidence in the investigating authorities’ ability to conduct a thorough and professional investigation within an optimal timeframe.

"Only these investigations will uncover the true causes of the incident - speculation and guesswork will not help establish the truth.”

Weather at the airport was around freezing temperature, with clouds before sunrise and winds around 18 mph.

The 31-year-old DHL aircraft, operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor, is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that’s not unusual for cargo flights.

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