One Dead, Three Injured in Lithuania Cargo Jet Crash
Facts
- A DHL cargo plane crashed on Monday as it attempted to land at Lithuania's Vilnius airport, killing one person and injuring three others.[1]
- According to authorities, the plane, a Boeing 737 operated for DHL by the Spanish cargo airline Swiftair, had departed from the company's hub at Leipzig Airport in Germany at around 3:00 pm local time and crashed an hour and a half later.[2]
- Arūnas Paulauskas, the head of the Lithuanian Police, has said that while the incident was 'most likely due to a technical fault or a human error,' terrorism 'cannot be ruled out.'[3]
- The US National Transportation Safety Board has said that it will send a team, including some Boeing specialists, to help investigate the cause of the crash.[4]
- German officials are currently investigating three incidents from earlier this year, where incendiary devices were concealed in packages at a warehouse in Leipzig for delivery by DHL.[5]
- Germany is also investigating Monday's crash, though it hasn't indicated whether the incidents are related.[6]
Sources: [1]RTE.ie, [2]BBC News, [3]Daily Mail, [4]The Times, [5]Reuters and [6]CNN.
Narratives
- Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by BBC News. It's too early to determine the cause of this crash, and it was likely due to human error. There's no indication that the flight was sabotaged. The tragic truth is that this was probably a result of human exhaustion and miscommunication, or perhaps a technical issue.
- Anti-Russia narrative, as provided by The Times. Russia has become increasingly antagonistic and even more brazen in its attacks. Recent threats at a DHL warehouse in Germany were likely tests by Russia to practice for future terrorist intentions. It's entirely possible that this crash was the result of Russian sabotage.