Residential building with 13 inhabitants on fire: tragedy narrowly avoided. The aircraft, operated by Swiftair on behalf of DHL, had taken off from Leipzig airport

A B-737/400 aircraft, registration EC-MFE, operated by Swiftair on behalf of DHL, crashed around 05:30 this morning while it was approaching Vilnius International Airport (Lithuania), coming from Leipzig (Germany). At the time of writing, Lithuanian authorities report 4 people on board (two Spanish, a Lithuanian and a German). Among them, one victim was recorded at the moment of impact with the ground. Two others, including one seriously injured, were transferred to the nearest hospital. A fourth is missing.

Lithuanian media are already talking about a near-tragedy: the aircraft, while approaching runway 19 of the airport, crashed into a courtyard, after having grazed a residential building, which nevertheless went up in flames. The 13 residents, members of three families, were unharmed.

According to the last transmission between the pilot and the air traffic controller, there was a communication error between the two. Preliminary data from the ADS-B system suggests that the aircraft crossed the centerline of the runway during the right turn for the final approach. It aligned approximately 1 nm beyond the Final Approach Point for the ILS approach to runway 19, approximately 5.4 nm before the runway threshold. The Boeing hit the ground approximately 0.8 nm before runway 19. Therefore, an error is among the possible causes of the accident, but some are already talking about a terrorist origin...