The flight recorders of a cargo plane belonging to global courier DHL that crashed near Vilnius on November 25 have been found as investigators continue to search for the cause of the deadly accident.
The Boeing 737-476 aircraft crashed as it attempted to land at Vilnius International Airport, killing the jet's Spanish pilot and injuring another Spanish crew member, a German, and a Lithuanian.
The crash came amid concerns among Western security officials that Russian intelligence is preparing acts of sabotage targeting Western cargo aircraft, though officials have said so far they have no evidence of a link.
The plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, the so-called black boxes, "were found and removed from the wreckage," Lithuania's Justice Ministry said in a statement, adding that investigators are analyzing the data on the two devices.
"The goal of a safety investigation is to prevent future accidents," the statement said, adding the probe "does not seek to determine who is at fault or responsible."
SEE ALSO: Steps Too Far As Moscow, Washington Cross 'Red Lines' Over Ukraine?Lithuanian Chief Prosecutor Arturas Urbelis separately said at least 19 witnesses were interviewed in connection with the incident but so far no indication has been found of "more serious actions."
The plane that departed Leipzig, Germany, about 90 minutes before the crash hit several buildings as it skidded hundreds of meters, according to the police and DHL. One of the buildings hit by the plane was a house whose occupants survived, authorities said.
Firefighters were not able to determine whether the plane began burning or breaking up while still in the air, and authorities have appealed to the public to hand over possible video recordings of the crash.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the crash could have been a "hybrid incident" with outside involvement.
"We must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or whether it was another hybrid incident," Baerbock told reporters at a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy.
"We have recently seen multiple hybrid attacks in Europe, often targeting individuals and infrastructure, whether underwater or hard infrastructure," she said, alluding to the recent severing of telecom cables in the Baltic Sea that officials have said could have been sabotage.
German authorities are working very closely with the Lithuanian authorities to get to the bottom of the crash, she added.
Lithuanian authorities have so far stopped short of making the same link.
"We cannot reject the possibility of terrorism...but at the moment we can't make attributions or point fingers because we don't have such information," Lithuanian counterintelligence chief Darius Jauniskis told reporters.
Many Western intelligence agencies have accused Moscow of involvement in sabotage acts in Europe, which they have said are aimed at destabilizing allies of Ukraine as it relies on Western governments in its war against Russia's full-scale invasion.
Lithuanian Commissioner-General of Police Arunas Paulauskas said surviving crew members told investigators there was no smoke, fire, or other emergency situation in the cabin prior to the crash. He also said the probability of an external force impact was very low.
The crash came after a series of fires at DHL depots in Britain and Germany during the summer. Western security officials were quoted in a news report earlier this month linking the fires to a test run of an alleged Russian operation aimed at igniting fires on cargo or passenger aircraft bound for North America.
The Wall Street Journal quoted security officials as saying devices that ignited in July in DHL depots in Leipzig and the British city of Birmingham were part of the test run.
Last month, Polish officials said four people had been detained as a result of the investigation into parcels that caught fire while en route to United States and Canada.
The activities of the four people "consisted of sabotage and diversion related to sending parcels containing camouflaged explosives and dangerous materials via courier companies to European Union countries and Great Britain, which spontaneously ignited or detonated during land and air transport," Polish prosecutors said in a statement on October 25.
"The group's goal was also to test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada," the statement said, adding that foreign intelligence services were to blame. The statement did not directly accuse Russia of involvement.
Canada in early November expressed concern to Russian officials after he arrests were announced. Russia responded by summoning a Canadian diplomat on November 8 to rebut allegations that Russia's secret services had orchestrated the campaign to mail explosive packages.