Plane crash in Lithuania: Search for cause underway

Investigations "in all directions"

According to Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, all conceivable causes are still being investigated. "We are examining all possible options. So far, no option has been ruled out," he said. His German colleague Annalena Baerbock also emphasized that the authorities in both countries are currently investigating "in all directions". In addition to a technical accident, she also considered a deliberately caused crash to be possible.

The plane crash raises questions and fears, above all because German security authorities had warned of "unconventional incendiary devices" being sent by unknown persons via freight service providers at the end of August. At the time, the warning was linked in security circles to an incident at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig, which acts as the company's global hub. In July, a parcel sent from the Baltic States containing an incendiary device is said to have caught fire there. Based on the investigation, arrests were also made in Lithuania, which were confirmed by the General Prosecutor's Office in Vilnius at the beginning of the month.

According to the investigators, there is no evidence so far of a deliberately caused crash. At a press conference on Tuesday, Laurynas Naujokaitis, head of the traffic accident investigation unit at the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice, denied the question of whether there were any indications that the incident was linked to terrorism, sabotage or other influences of this kind: "At the moment, we have no such indications."

The head of the National Crisis Management Center, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, also said in an interview with the BNS agency that there was no information that the plane caught fire before it hit the ground or that the pilots had been disturbed by GPS satellite navigation interference.

Copyright 2024, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved