German foreign minister questions if DHL cargo plane crash was ‘hybrid incident’

Authorities search for answers as they continue their investigation after a Boeing 737 cargo plane crashed into a house near Vilnius Airport in Lithuania on Monday morning.

The DHL cargo plane operated by Swiftair, departing from Leipzig in Germany, crashed while approaching the airport in Lithuania’s capital. A Spanish crew member was killed, and three other people on board were rushed to the hospital, one of them is in critical condition. No one on the ground was reportedly injured.

Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Italy, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock raised the question of whether the plane crash was a hybrid attack.

“We have to say at this point that we and our Lithuanian partners must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or, after last week, another hybrid incident. That shows what volatile times we are living in in the middle of Europe,” she said.

Lithuanian officials said one line of inquiry would examine Russian involvement but stressed that no evidence exists yet.

Last month, Western security officials warned that Russian military intelligence may be carrying out sabotage acts against nations in retaliation for their support to Ukraine.

Darius Jauniškis, the chief of Lithuania’s Intelligence, mirrored these concerns and said terrorism cannot be ruled out: “The State Security Department, together with the Department of Operational Services, have warned that these things are possible in the future. We see Russia becoming more aggressive.”

He added that however for now, “we really cannot make any attributions or point fingers at anyone, because there is no information about it.”

Lithuanian Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas said, “According to the information I have at the moment, I can say that there are no confirming facts that this was some kind of sabotage or terrorist incident. But the investigation will answer all the questions.”

The General Commissioner of the Lithuanian Police, Arūnas Paulauskas, chose not to speculate and said the cause of the crash might be the result of a technical failure or a human error. “But we are not aviation experts here to discuss this matter in such detail,” he added.

Paulauskas confirmed that investigators have visited the hospital, and will talk with the aircraft’s police and other aviation officials when they get the chance.

“As far as I know, the investigators have gone to the hospital. If there is an opportunity to communicate with the aircraft’s pilots to determine the initial causes, as well as with officials responsible for civil aviation.”

Experts say communication with Air Traffic Controller seemed ‘normal’

Several aviation experts who spoke to local media said they noticed nothing out of the ordinary when they listened to the communication between the crew and the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) that was shared online.

Aviation expert Vidas Kaupelis said it seemed there was “routine communication between the air traffic controller and the pilot”.

“They didn’t declare any emergency situation, they didn’t speak of any technical failures or fires,” the expert added.

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The Chief of the Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation under Ministry of Justice, Laurynas Naujokaitis, said German and Spanish investigators are due to arrive in Lithuania to assist local authorities with the probe.

“Currently we have an answer that a German safety probe institution is sending four investigators, Spain safety probe institution is sending two,” he said. “We are still gathering information regarding technical maintenance, meteorological, navigation and qualification information.”