Secret services were today probing the cause of a DHL cargo plane crash in Lithuania, which killed the pilot, after several recent "covert Russian sabotage operations" involving bombs at warehouses - including in the UK. Three other crew members were rescued and hospitalised with injuries following the crash in the East European country's capital, Vilnius. An explosion lit up the early morning sky in the Lithuanian capital and triggered a major fire, which forced emergency services to rush to the scene.
But the nation's secret services are now believed to be probing possible links between the crash and recent Russian sabotage attacks. For the last few months, several mysterious explosions have occurred at DHL warehouses both in the UK in Birmingham and Leipzig in Germany, amid growing fears of a Kremlin covert sabotage operation. It is feared that the small devices' real targets may have been DHL aircraft flying into Western destinations.
Bombs were disguised as massage devices filled with flammable substances instead of electronic components. Experts concluded that the attacks, which caused small fires at the DHL warehouses in Birmingham and Leipzig, had been designed to "create havoc". But it was also feared that the intention was not to target the logistics centres but rather passenger and cargo planes carrying hazardous packages.
Lithuanian intelligence services were at the scene of today’s crash of a Boeing 737-400 of cargo airline Swiftair, which DHL leases. There was.