Lithuanian authorities are not ruling out the possibility that a terrorist attack may have caused the DHL plane crash in Vilnius.

The head of the Lithuanian police, Arūnas Paulauskas, and the head of the State Security Department, Darius Jauniškis, announced that they are considering a terrorist act among the possible causes of the crash that occurred on Monday morning in Vilnius involving a Boeing 737-400 belonging to the German delivery service DHL.

According to Associated Press, the incident took place after the aircraft turned around and was approaching for landing, about 1.5 km from the Vilnius airport runway.

The plane struck a residential building. There were four people on board: two pilots and two crew members. One pilot, a citizen of Spain, lost his life. Two crew members were taken to the hospital. Fortunately, there were no casualties among the residents of Vilnius.

The head of the National Crisis Management Center, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, described the event as an accident. He stated that the primary cause of the incident may be related to "technical issues."

Lithuanian police commissioner Arūnas Paulauskas indicated that the crash was likely due to technical or human error. However, he did not dismiss the possibility of a terrorist act.

"It is obvious that it can never be ruled out. This is one of the versions that needs to be examined and verified," said Paulauskas.

The head of the State Security Department (SSD), Darius Jauniškis, emphasized that it is too early to confirm the terrorist version, but it remains a possibility.

"We cannot exclude terrorism. Of course, the SSD, along with the Operational Service Department, has also warned us that such incidents could happen in the future, especially as we see Russia becoming more aggressive," he stated.

A criminal case has been initiated under an article that addresses improper maintenance of vehicles.

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing representatives of Western intelligence, that the Russian military intelligence (GRU) was preparing to set fire to planes flying to North America. According to the publication, part of the preparations for the arson included operations that led to fires at a DHL warehouse in England and at Leipzig airport. The aircraft that crashed today had departed from Leipzig.

Background. Recall that in Poland, Russians were detained on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts on flights to the USA and Canada. The arson attempts on board the aircraft were an effort to test whether fires could be ignited on planes.