DHL cargo plane crashes into house in Lithuania, at least 1 dead

A DHL Cargo plane prepares to take off from the Miami International Airport in Miami, on June 16, 2021. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

VILNIUS, Lithuania — A DHL cargo plane crashed into a house Monday morning near the Lithuanian capital, killing at least one person.

Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said two people had been taken to the hospital after the crash, and one was later pronounced dead. LRT said the aircraft smashed into a two-story home near Vilnius International Airport.

The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a DHL cargo plane arriving from Leipzig, Germany. It posted on the social platform X that city services including a fire truck were on site.

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Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24, analyzed by The Associated Press, showed the aircraft made a turn to the north of the airport, lining up for landing, before crashing a little more than 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) short of the runway.

Authorities did not immediately offer a cause for the crash, which happened just before 5:30 a.m local time. Weather at the airport was around freezing temperature, with clouds before sunrise and winds around 30 kph (18 mph).

DHL Group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, did not immediately return a call for comment.

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The DHL aircraft was operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor. The carrier could not be immediately reached.

The Boeing 737 was 31 years old, which is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that’s not unusual for cargo flights.