Germany sends investigators after cargo jet crash

German investigators are also involved in the search for the cause of the accident following the crash of a cargo plane that was traveling on behalf of the postal service provider DHL. The Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation will support the investigation on site in Lithuania, a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Transport told journalists in Berlin. Colleagues would be on duty there from the evening.

"No statements can yet be made about the cause of the accident," said a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Whether it was an accident or whether another cause led to the crash is currently being investigated.

The cargo plane that took off from Leipzig was operated by the Spanish airline Swift Air, DHL announced. Swift Air works under contract for DHL. The plane crashed in the early morning near the airport in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, close to a residential building. One person was killed, according to police and rescue services.

So far, no information on possible links to incendiary device warnings

At the end of August, German security authorities warned of "unconventional incendiary devices" being sent by unknown persons via freight service providers. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) sent out a corresponding warning to companies in the aviation and logistics sector. The spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior said that there were no findings to date regarding possible connections.

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. In security circles, a connection with increasing cases of Russian sabotage in Germany has not been ruled out.