Vilnius, Lithuania — A DHL cargo plane crashed early Monday near the Lithuanian capital’s airport, killing one person, authorities said as they searched for clues about the causes of the tragedy. Lithuanian authorities, who have in recent weeks investigated incendiary devices allegedly sent on cargo planes bound for the West, have not made a link between the accident and this investigation.
“It is premature to associate him with anything or make attributions,” State Security Department head Darius Jauniskis told reporters.
Images from the crash site in the capital Vilnius showed debris from the plane and burning packages scattered across the residential area, which had been cordoned off by emergency services.
Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Service/Anadolu/Getty
“We cannot exclude the case of terrorism. We have warned that such things are possible, we see an increasingly aggressive Russia… but we cannot yet make attributions or point fingers,” he said. declared Jauniskis.
U.S. and European law enforcement agencies have been working together for weeks to determine whether the incendiary devices that exploded in July at DHL logistics centers in Germany and Britain were part of a larger plot. operation led by Russian military intelligence agencies, at the highest levels of the Russian government, or by outside individuals acting in Russia’s interests, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News in early November.
According to Lithuanian police, the plane, coming from Leipzig, in eastern Germany, skidded several hundred meters before hitting the residential house which was set on fire, as well as smaller buildings and a car.
Renatas Pozela, head of the fire and rescue service, said one person among the plane’s four crew members died in the accident, which occurred as the plane landed in Vilnius.
Andrius Sytas/Reuters
The head of the National Crisis Management Center, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, said the residential building was successfully evacuated and its 12 residents were brought to safety.
German logistics company DHL said the cargo plane was operated by its partner SwiftAir and had made an “emergency landing” in Lithuania.
“We can confirm that today, around 4:30 a.m. CET, a Swiftair aircraft, operated by a service partner on behalf of DHL, made an emergency landing approximately one kilometer away. [about half a mile] from VNO Airport [Vilnius, Lithuania] en route from LEJ airport [Leipzig, Germany] at VNO Airport,” he said in a statement.
Lithuanian police chief Arunas Paulauskas said investigators had gone to the hospital to speak to the pilots.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.
Earlier this month, Lithuania said it had made arrests as part of a criminal investigation into sending incendiary devices aboard planes bound for the West.
Polish and Lithuanian media said the devices, including electric massagers implanted with a flammable substance, were sent from Lithuania to the United Kingdom in July and may have caused a truck fire outside Warsaw.
British counterterrorism police said last month they were investigating how a package caught fire at a depot earlier this year, after a similar case in Germany that authorities blamed on Russia. The Lithuanian president’s top security adviser said this month that Moscow was behind the incidents.
“We know who is behind these operations. It is Russian military intelligence,” Kestutis Budrys told Ziniu radio. “We cannot leave this unaddressed because it will only escalate into new types of actions.”
Poland and Lithuania, two NATO members bordering Russia, which have been major allies of Ukraine amid that country’s efforts to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion, have frequently warned of Russian-inspired sabotage on EU soil.
The 2025 Domestic Threat Assessment released in late October states that the United States remains concerned about threats to aviation and air cargo systems, including “the potential use of cargo supply chain air transport to ship concealed dangerous and potentially lethal objects.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said in a statement in October that it continually adjusts its security posture as necessary and will “promptly share all relevant information with our industry partners, to include requirements and recommendations that will help them reduce risks.
“Over the past several months, as part of a multi-layered security approach, TSA has worked with industry partners to implement additional security measures for U.S. aircraft operators and foreign air carriers regarding certain cargo shipments destined for the United States, in accordance with the 2021 TSA Air Cargo Security Roadmap,” the TSA statement said at the time.
