One crew member dies, three survive when cargo plane crashes near Vilnius airport

One crew member was killed after a cargo plane crashed on the edge of Lithuania’s Vilnius airport early Monday, skidded into a house and burst into flames.

Remarkably, three others on board the flight, including the pilot, survived the crash, along with twelve people in the house who local authorities said were safely evacuated.

The cargo plane flying from Leipzig, Germany, was due to land at Vilnius airport when it crashed a few kilometers from the runway. The plane skidded along the ground for hundreds of meters before hitting a residential home, Renatas Pozela, head of the fire and rescue department, told reporters.

“One crew member was found without any signs of life,” said Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the country’s National Crisis Management Center, according to public broadcaster LRT.

The three rescued crew members – one Lithuanian, one German and one Spanish – remain in hospital, the Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Department told CNN. No casualties on the ground were reported.

A spokesperson for the National Crisis Management Center later said that police and prosecutors were investigating the incident, but there was no indication that an explosion preceded the crash.

“At this time we have no data that an explosion has occurred,” the spokesman told Reuters.

The head of Lithuanian counterintelligence, Darius Jauniskis, told reporters at a news conference: “We cannot dismiss the possibility of terrorism. … But at this time we cannot make any attributions or point fingers because we do not have such information.”

Footage from a nearby security camera shows the plane descending before disappearing from view behind a building. Moments later, a large fireball can be seen rising in the sky from behind the building, followed by a plume of black smoke.

The incident happened around 5:30 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) near Zirniu Street, south of the capital, an airport spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Monday.

The spokesperson said that due to “ongoing rescue work near Vilnius Airport” the departure of several aircraft had been delayed, but all scheduled flights were still taking off.

According to the fire brigade, the fire was under control at 7:33 a.m. local time.

The cargo plane that crashed was a Swiftair plane “operating under contract for DHL,” the logistics company said in a statement to CNN.

DHL said the plane “made an emergency landing approximately one kilometer from VNO Airport.” It was confirmed that there were four people on board. “The cause of the accident is still unknown and an investigation is underway,” DHL said.

The aircraft was a Boeing 737-400, according to a Swiftair statement.

According to Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas, the plane narrowly missed the house and crashed into the nearby courtyard, LRT reported.

Lithuanian police chief Arūnas Paulauskas said the incident was “most likely due to a technical error or human error” but that terrorism “cannot be ruled out,” according to LRT.

“This is one of the versions of the crash that will be investigated and verified. There is a lot of work to be done. Gathering evidence could take all week, there will be no quick answers,” Paulauskas reportedly said.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Kathleen Magramo contributed reporting.

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