In brief
Authorities in Lithuania are investigating the incident that occurred early Monday morning involving a DHL-operated cargo plane from Swiftair, which crashed on final approach near residential buildings.
In the early hours of Monday, a tragic accident unfolded as a cargo plane crashed close to Vilnius airport, leaving one person dead and injuring three others. The aircraft, operated for DHL by the Spanish airline Swiftair, crashed near a residential area during its final approach for landing. Local police confirmed that the evacuation of 12 individuals from a nearby house was successfully completed.The plane took off from Leipzig Airport in Germany just after 03:00 local time (02:00 GMT) and went down approximately 90 minutes later, flying into a densely populated area. Data from flight-tracking service Flightradar24 indicates that flight operations continued at Vilnius airport despite the crash, as authorities actively manage the aftermath.Firefighters were deployed to combat smoke emanating from a structure about 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) north of the runway. The cause of the crash remains undetermined, prompting an investigation by Lithuanian authorities to understand the factors that led to this unfortunate incident. Further updates will be provided as the situation develops, and the search continues for a fourth individual who was reported missing.
