Authorities in Lithuania are denying that Putin’s investigators were involved after a DHL cargo plane crashed into a house in the country, killing one person.
The Kremlin is said to have launched an extraordinary terrorist campaign, targeting DHL across Europe, including allegedly placing fire extinguishers hidden in packages that were supposed to be carried on cargo planes operated by the San Francisco-based airline.
The Boeing plane that crashed on Monday began its journey in Leipzig, Germany. The city has been the site of three previous attacks apparently orchestrated by Kremlin agents. In July, three days apart, fire broke out in packages on a DHL cargo plane due to leave the city.
On Monday, a DHL cargo plane lost control when it arrived at Vilnius Airport in the capital of Lithuania and—one kilometer from its runway—entered a wooded area before crashing into a two-story building at 5.30am local time Monday (22:30 Sunday EST).
Another person, a male member, died. The two pilots and all occupants of the plane survived. “‘I saw a ball of fire,'” one witness told an AP reporter at the scene. “My first thought is that the world (war) has begun.”
Officials suspect that Putin had a say in the incident
Lithuanian Police Commissioner General Arunas Paulauskas said investigators are considering the possibility of a terrorist attack. “This is one of the versions that needs to be studied and analyzed,” he said.
The incident follows suspected bombings targeting logistics companies in Poland, Germany and the UK as part of a Europe-wide campaign to attack infrastructure that Western intelligence agencies believe is being orchestrated by Russian operatives.
Polish officials went on the record to confirm that they believed foreign intelligence saboteurs were involved in the mysterious firebombings. Prosecutor Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska said earlier this month that bad actors were involved in sending packages containing hidden bombs and dangerous goods.
Due to the recent incident, the outgoing president of Lithuania, Ingrida Simonyte, urged people not to point the finger.
“In the current political situation, we look at every incident differently than before, but I ask you not to jump to conclusions,” he said in a statement on social media.
The police commissioner said it was too late to say what caused the downing of the plane but said it could be something more sinister than a Russian attack. Reports so far indicate that there was no evidence of an explosion before the plane went down.