German officials don't want to rule out sabotage as possible reason for DHL plane crash

Nov. 26 (UPI) -- German officials on Tuesday started to question the crash of a DHL-chartered cargo plane in Vilnius, Lithuania, the day before as an act of sabotage.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock openly talked about the possibility of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine and threats since the United States allowed Kyiv to launch long-range missiles into Russia.

"The fact that we, together with our Lithuanian and Spanish partners, must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or, after last week, another hybrid incident, shows what volatile times we are currently living in, even in the center of Europe," Baerbock said, according to Politico.

"The German authorities are working very closely with Lithuanian authorities to get to the bottom of this."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to take sabotage off the table during a local broadcast interview.

"We are looking at this closely," Scholz said, according to CNN, when asked if he thought the crash was the result of hybrid warfare. " We can't say at the moment, but it could be so. There are very many bad forms of hybrid warfare that we are seeing in Germany. [The crash] needs to be investigated closely. But we won't make an accusation until we can prove it."

Lithuanian officials, however, have not gone so far with the sabotage theory, saying that the crash was likely caused by human error or a technical malfunction.

The plane's pilot was killed when the DHL-contracted cargo plane went down in a residential area near the airport in Vilnius on Monday. The three survivors pulled from the wreckage were listed in critical condition.

DHL Lithuania confirmed that the airplane was owned by Swiftair, a Madrid-based carrier operating on behalf of DHL.