"At this moment, we can only confirm that today, at around 5.30 a.m., a plane of Swiftair, a third-party carrier under DHL contract, flying from Leipzig Airport to Vilnius Airport, made a forced landing about a kilometre away from the airport," Aušra Rutkauskienė told Elta.
"The cause of the accident is not yet known and the investigation is underway," she said.
She said the cargo was usual, consisting of goods that are shipped every day.
"We have no information on anything that might raise suspicion. These were regular import goods that we transport on a daily basis," the DHL Lietuva spokesperson said, adding the company does not want to speculate on any unverified data.
The aircraft’s staff was a regular one, according to Rutkauskienė.
"The staff was reliable and a regular one. These are the people who had flown many times before," she explained.
Four people were onboard of the DHL cargo plane. A Spanish pilot was confirmed dead at the scene, others are now treated in hospital. One of them is in critical condition, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Clinic has said.
Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Centre, said initial data show the plane crash was an accident.
The aircraft went down in Vilnius at 5.33 a.m., hitting part of a residential house. Warehouses and a car nearby caught fire which was localised in about two hours’ time. Firefighters evacuated 13 people from the house, including two children. They were accommodated in a hotel, Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said.