German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock declared on Monday that the crash of a DHL cargo plane in Vilnius was an accident or a “hybrid incident” with external involvement.
“We must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or another hybrid incident,” the minister was quoted by the APF news agency as saying at a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy. Ms Baerbock was referring to the recent severing of telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea, which officials have suggested might have been purposeful sabotage.
“We have recently seen multiple hybrid attacks in Europe, often targeting individuals and infrastructure, whether underwater or on land,” the minister declared.
The term “hybrid” is typically used to describe acts that involve sabotaging of infrastructure or a variety of cyberattacks, as opposed to conventional military tactics.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European countries have often used the term to describe actions against them which they consider to have originated in Moscow.
Lithuanian authorities so far have not found any links between Monday’s crash and the alleged cases of sabotage that have happened recently.
The DHL cargo plane had a crew of four, and it crashed near Vilnius Airport on Monday morning. A Spaniard on board the plane was killed. Another Spaniard, a German and a Lithuanian sustained various injuries. One remains in critical condition.
The aircraft struck a building with 13 residents, but none of them were harmed.
The Lithuanian capital city’s Police Department has launched a pre-trial investigation into the crash. Aviation safety experts and DHL are conducting their own probes.
The Boeing 737 which crashed about a kilometre from the Vilnius airport on its way from Leipzig, Germany, was owned by Spain’s Swiftair and was used for the transportation of DHL shipments.
Source: BNS
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