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Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Lithuanian authorities confirmed that the pilot killed when a DHL-contracted cargo plane went down in a residential area near the airport in the capital, Vilnius, early Monday was a Spanish citizen. The three survivors pulled from the wreckage were Spanish, German and Lithuanian, the authorities said.
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Vilnius Emergency Medical Mobile Brigades Service Igor Lukasevas head said the pilot was found unconscious and subsequently pronounced dead at the scene. The others were taken to the hospital, all with multiple injuries.
Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Clinic said one of the injured was in a critical condition.
A 34-year-old Lithuanian on board told rescuers that he was traveling in the main cabin of the plane, while the other three were flying up front in the cockpit.
However, ambulance doctor Bozena Jerenkivc, who was the first on the scene, told LRT Radio that the three who escaped were more easily rescued because the cabin in which they were seated was not engulfed in flames.
"It was lucky that that cabin was separate from the source of the flames. And we were lucky that no people were engulfed in flames."
DHL Lithuania confirmed the stricken aircraft belonged to Swiftair, a Madrid, Spain-headquartered carrier operating on behalf of DHL.
"At this moment, we can only confirm that today, at around 5.30 a.m., a plane of Swiftair, a third-party carrier under DHL contract, flying from Leipzig Airport to Vilnius Airport, made a forced landing about 1,000 yards away from the airport," DHL spokeswoman Ausra Rutkauskiene told Lithuania's Elta news agency.
"The cause of the accident is not yet known and an investigation is underway," said Rutkauskiene adding that the aircraft was carrying routine cargo and that the manifest showed nothing out of the ordinary.
"We have no information on anything that might raise suspicion. These were regular import goods that we transport on a daily basis."
She stressed that the personnel on board were regular, reliable and experienced crew.
"These are the people who had flown many times before."
The Boeing 737-476 en route from Leipzig in Germany crashed on Zirnių Street near its destination of Vilnius Airport at about 5:30 a.m. local time, the airport said in a statement.
The aircraft hit a two-story residential building causing an explosion and fire and 12 people had to be evacuated from the house, according to a statement from Fire Protection and Rescue Department, a division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The blaze took firefighters from six fire trucks two hours to bring under control.
The office of Prime Minister Indrida Symonyte said an emergency meeting had been held on the crash and officials were informed that the residential fire was contained and that affected residents had been safely evacuated.
Police, along with the General Prosecutor's Office, have launched an investigation into the crash, while a separate probe is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Justice.
"The most important thing is that despite the incident occurring in a residential area, there were no casualties among the local residents," Symonyte said in a statement.
"The Vilnius City Municipality is taking care of the people, and we will support them as much as needed."
Rescue work delayed the departure of several aircraft, and one plane's landing was diverted to the Latvian capital of Riga, the Vilnius Airport said.
Planes were able to land and depart from Vilnius normally as of 7:20 a.m., according to airport officials.
