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LITHUANIA, Europe: One person has died, and three others were injured following a cargo plane that crashed near Vilnius Airport in Lithuania on Monday (today)
The Boeing 737-400, operated for DHL by Spanish cargo airline Swiftair, went down near a house during its final approach for landing, local authorities confirmed.
“All 12 people have been safely evacuated from a property close to the crash site,” police reported.
Rescue services stated that all individuals on board the flight from Leipzig, Germany, have been accounted for.
According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft departed from DHL’s hub at Leipzig Airport just after 03:00 local time (02:00 GMT) and crashed roughly an hour and a half later.
Despite the incident, flight operations are continuing at Vilnius Airport, Flightradar24 noted on X.
Firefighters responded to smoke coming from a building located 1.3 km (0.8 mile) north of the airport runway, as reported by Reuters news agency.
Lithuanian authorities have launched an investigation into the crash as officials affirmed that no current evidence to suggest an explosion occurred before the crash.
Renatas Pozela, head of Lithuania’s firefighting and emergency services unit, said, “The plane was due to land at Vilnius Airport and crashed a few kilometres away.”
He confirmed that one crew member out of the four on board had died.
Mr Pozela added that a nearby house sustained minor damage and some infrastructure caught fire, but all residents were evacuated safely.
The airport spokesperson identified the aircraft as a Boeing 737-400, which was 31 years old, according to reports.
