One member of a four-person crew was killed when a Boeing 737-400 operated by Spanish charter carrier Swiftair on behalf of express package group DHL crashed on final approach to Lithuania's Vilnius Airport (EYVI) early this morning. The flight originated in Leipzig, where German police are investigating a suspicious fire at a DHL warehouse, but Lithuanian officials said they have no specific grounds to suspect terrorism.
The flight departed Leipzig soon after 3 a.m. local time, before crashing into a building close to EYVI at around 5.30 a.m. Reuters reported Lithuania’s National Aviation Agency as saying that the Swiftair pilots had not given air traffic controllers any indication of problems with the aircraft as it prepared to land in temperatures close to freezing point and with winds of around 16 knots. Three crewmembers survived with injuries and no one was killed on the ground.