Thiloththama Jayasinghe, Jadetimes Staff
T. Jayasinghe is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Travel News
A tragic cargo plane accident occurred near Vilnius Airport in Lithuania early Monday morning, leaving one dead and three injured out of its four-member crew. The plane, operated for DHL by Spanish cargo airline Swiftair, crashed near a residential house while performing its final approach to land, local authorities said.
Police reported that 12 people were evacuated safely from the nearby house, and rescue services confirmed that all individuals on the flight from Leipzig, Germany, had been accounted for. The aircraft had departed from Leipzig Airport at around 03:00 local time (02:00 GMT) and crashed approximately 90 minutes later, as tracked by Flightradar24.
Emergency responders, including firefighters, were seen fighting smoke coming from a building 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) north of the airport's runway. Flight operations in Vilnius Airport are still going on as the relevant authorities investigate into the crash.
Renatas Pozela, the head of firefighting and emergency services in Lithuania, confirmed that the crash happened a few kilometers from the airport. The circumstances of the accident are not yet known, with an official inquiry into the cause now under way.
This tragic incident has once again pointed out the dangers that cargo flight crews face, while rapid action has been taken by local emergency teams to ensure safety within the general vicinity.
