Horrifying new audio and video has emerged showing the moment a doomed DHL cargo plane crashed into a building before erupting into a fireball.
The 31-year-old Boeing 737 cargo aircraft was en route from Leipzig to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital when it skidded into a nearby house on Monday morning, tragically killing one and leaving three other crew members needing hospital treatment.
Photos showed smoke rising from a damaged structure in barren trees as the explosion lit up the early morning sky.
A dozen residents of the house where the plane crashed are alive and were evacuated. Fire crews from nearby Vilnius Airport arrived at the scene.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
Now, the final chilling audio of the pilots involved has been released.
As the doomed plane made its approach to Vilnius airport, the pilot showed no panic or nervousness as he engaged calmly with air traffic control.
As he descended, the pilot can be heard: “Could you please confirm expecting ILS? I am not expecting ILS.”
An ILS—Instrument Landing System—is a radio navigation system that helps aircraft land safely in low visibility, but it was not required as the plane, call-sign Swift18D, was told to descend to 4,000ft and then to 2,700ft.
It was then given clearance to land before contact with controllers stopped as it vanished off radar and crashed.
Mystery surrounding the plane’s sudden crash is growing with there being no immediate reason as to why the aircraft crashed.
An airport spokesperson said the plane was a Boeing 737-400, and weather conditions had been fine at the time of the crash.
Arūnas Paulauskas, General Commissioner of the Lithuanian Police said investigators are considering various possible causes, such as technical failure and human error. They have not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist act.