By Manveena Suri, Edward Szekeres and Helen Regan, CNN
One person was killed and at least two others were taken to hospital after a cargo plane flying from Leipzig, Germany crashed outside Vilnius Airport in Lithuania, according to public broadcaster LRT.
“One crew member was found without any signs of life, two were rescued, they were taken to hospital,” said Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the country’s National Crisis Management Center, according to LRT.
The incident happened at about 5.30 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) near Zirniu Street, south of the capital, an airport spokesperson confirmed to CNN Monday.
“The city’s special services are working at the scene and leading the rescue efforts, as well as crews from the Vilnius Airport Fire Service,” the airport spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said due to “ongoing rescue work near Vilnius Airport,” departures for several aircraft have been delayed but that all scheduled flights were still taking off.
Reuters reported that the cargo plane that crashed was operated by SWIFT airline on behalf of DHL.
According to Vilnius mayor, Valdas Benkunskas, the plane narrowly missed hitting a house and crashed into the nearby courtyard, LRT reported. Benkunskas said all 12 residents of the house survived.
There are also no reports of casualties on the ground and the pilot of the plane was recovered alive at the scene, LRT reported.
Firefighters could be seen pouring water onto a building where a large plume of smoke billowed into the sky.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Source: edition.cnn.com