“The Ministry of Justice notes that the investigation “does not aim to determine who is guilty or responsible”, but is instead aimed at preventing other disasters”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
The agency added that investigators are analyzing data on two devices.
“The purpose of the investigation is to prevent future accidents,” the statement said.
The Ministry of Justice notes that the investigation “does not aim to determine who is guilty or responsible.”
Lithuania’s chief prosecutor, Arturas Urbelis, also said that the investigation had interviewed at least 19 witnesses in connection with the incident, but had not yet found any signs of “more serious actions.”
Firefighters were unable to determine whether the plane caught fire or disintegrated mid-air, and authorities appealed to the public for possible video footage of the crash.
Read also: Denmark detained a Chinese vessel suspected of damaging cables in the Baltic. Its captain is Russian, writes Bild
German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said the crash could have been a “hybrid incident” with external involvement.
“We now have to seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or whether this was another hybrid incident,” Burbock told reporters at a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy.
She pointed to “multiple hybrid attacks in Europe” targeting people and infrastructure, alluding to the recent rupture of telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. Officials believe it was sabotage. The German authorities are working very closely with the Lithuanian authorities to understand the nature of the accident, Burbock added.
The Lithuanian authorities have not yet established the same connection.
“We cannot rule out the possibility of terrorism … but at this point we cannot make assumptions or point fingers because we do not have such information,” Lithuania’s counterintelligence chief, Dariusz Jauniskis, told reporters.
Read also: Sikorsky: Poland will close the remaining consulates of the Russian Federation if Moscow does not stop sabotage in Europe
According to Lithuanian Police Commissioner General Arunas Paulauskas, the surviving crew members told investigators that there was no smoke, fire or other emergency in the cockpit before the crash. He also noted that the probability of external force influence is very low.
On the morning of November 25, at 5:31 a.m., in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, a cargo plane of the DHL company, flying from Leipzig, Germany, crashed into a two-story residential building, reports Delfi. There were four people in the plane, two pilots and two workers.
According to the situation coordination department of the Department of Fire Safety and Rescue, rescuers freed one of the pilots from the plane, he regained consciousness. Two victims were taken to the hospital, one person died.
According to the police, four apartments are equipped in the affected building. Three families live in the house. Firefighters evacuated 12 people, they were not injured.
The accident follows a series of fires at DHL warehouses in Britain and Germany over the summer. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal quoted Western security officials as linking the fires to a test of a suspected Russian operation aimed at arson on cargo or passenger planes bound for North America.