German politicians raise sabotage concerns following the catastrophic DHL aircraft accident in Lithuania.

A representative for Lithuania's Ministry of Justice told CNN that the plane's two black boxes, which record flight data, were found from the accident site on Tuesday.

Lithuania's counter-intelligence chief, Darius Jauniskis, stated at a news conference that they cannot rule out the potential of terrorism. However, we are unable to make attributions or point fingers at this time due to a lack of information.

When asked if the incident was the consequence of hybrid warfare on Monday evening, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told public television ZDF: "We are looking at this closely, 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."

Scholz stated that the cause of the incident "needs to be investigated thoroughly." But we will not make an accusation until we can prove it."

His comments follow similar remarks by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who told reporters at a G7 summit: "The fact that we, together with our Lithuanian and Spanish partners, must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident (or) another hybrid incident shows what volatile times we are currently living in, even in the center of Europe."

On Tuesday, Baerbock said that multiple recent instances matched Russia's pattern of "destabilization and division," noting that "thousands of propaganda bots, disrupted GPS signals, or even a cut data cable in the Baltic Sea - those cannot all be coincidences at the same time."

Meanwhile, Lithuanian officials downplayed the possibility of criminal action, claiming that no proof of sabotage had yet been discovered. "Our initial information does not indicate that we need to be investigating more serious actions," Prosecutor Arturas Urbelis said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.

"We might find signs of activities of other kinds as we investigate," according to him.

According to Reuters, the US National Transportation Safety Board will deploy its own officials to assist with the inquiry, along with representatives from Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration.

A neighboring security camera captured footage of the jet falling before disappearing behind a structure. Moments later, a big fireball appears in the sky, rising from behind the structure, followed by a column of black smoke.

One crew member died in the crash. Three other passengers on the airplane, including the pilot, survived, as did 12 individuals in the house who were safely evacuated, according to local officials.

A representative for Lithuania's Ministry of Justice told CNN that the plane's two black boxes, which record flight data, were found from the accident site on Tuesday.

Lithuania's counter-intelligence head, Darius Jauniskis, stated during a news conference that they cannot rule out the potential of terrorism. However, we are unable to make attributions or point fingers at this time due to a lack of information.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal revealed that incendiary devices that exploded in Leipzig, Germany, and the United Kingdom in July were part of a clandestine Russian plan to create fires on cargo and passenger flights bound for the United States and Canada. Some European officials eventually supported the charges, which Moscow rejected.

"I can state that this is part of unconventional kinetic operations against NATO countries that are being undertaken by Russian military intelligence," Kestutis Budrys, a national security assistant to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, told Reuters following the WSJ article.

"We note that these operations are being escalated: their focus is moving … to harming infrastructure and actions that could end up killing people," he added.

Speaking at a press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the WSJ's reporting as "unintelligible hoaxes that are never supported by any credible information."

The cargo jet that crashed on Monday was a Swiftair aircraft "operating under contract for DHL," according to a statement from the logistics business to CNN.

DHL stated that the jet "made a forced landing about one kilometer from VNO Airport." It verified that four persons were on board. "The cause of the accident is still unknown, and an investigation is underway," the delivery company added.

Swiftair confirmed that the jet was a Boeing 737-400.

According to Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas, the jet narrowly missed hitting the home and crashed into a neighboring courtyard, LRT said.

According to LRT, Arūnas Paulauskas, the chief of the Lithuanian Police, stated that the incident was most likely caused by a technological failure or human error, but that terrorism "cannot be ruled out."

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