The pilot of the DHL cargo plane that crashed this Monday in Vilnius and who died in the accident has Spanish nationality, as does a member of the crew who was injured and hospitalized, the head of police communications informed EFE. Lithuanian, Ramūnas Matonis. Matonis said a German and another Lithuanian national were also injured and hospitalized after the Boeing 737 crashed in a residential area near Vilnius airport, a few kilometers from the runway.
The plane, which had departed from the German city of Leipzig, belonged to the Spanish company Swiftair, according to public radio LRT. The causes of the accident are still being investigated, according to the police spokesperson.
“An inspection of the scene will be carried out to determine the cause of the plane crash. All circumstances are being investigated,” the Commissioner General of Police, Arūnas Paulauskas, stressed at a press conference.
The event occurred at 05:31 local time (03:31 GMT) when the Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Department (PAGD) received information that an explosion and fire had occurred on Žirnių Street in Vilnius.
A cargo plane had crashed and a two-story residential building had caught fire. “The plane was landing, but it fell a few kilometers before the airport, skidded several hundred meters and its remains hit a residential house,” PAGD director Renatas Požėla said at a press conference.
Paulauskas indicated in turn that the plane crashed specifically into a warehouse next to the building. It is a densely populated area.
Evacuation of 12 people
Firefighters rescued three victims from the wreckage of the plane and extracted one dead person, the Spanish pilot. Rescuers evacuated 12 people from the building as the wreckage of the plane burned. Finally, the fire was extinguished by firefighters.
A rescue coordination center was installed at the scene. Police officers and airport staff were also deployed. At 07:33 local time (05:33 GMT) the fire was finally considered controlled and individual extinguishing was carried out.
Acting Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė stated that the municipality of the capital where the accident occurred will receive all necessary help. “The most important thing is that, even though the accident occurred in a residential area, casualties were avoided among the people who lived there,” Šimonytė said in a comment published on Monday.
“I ask you to trust the institutions’ ability to carry out the investigation professionally and in the optimal time. Only these investigations will answer questions about the real causes of the incident, speculation and conjecture will not really help establish the truth,” he stressed, according to LRT.
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