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......before crashing in a huge fireball as investigators refuse to rule out Russian terror plot
The moment a DHL cargo flight crash landed and sparked a massive inferno as it skidded into a house in Lithuania this morning has been revealed in a dramatic video clip.
The Boeing 737-400 had travelled from the German city of Leipzig to the Lithuanian capital and was just one mile from touching down on the runway when the fiery crash occurred around 5.30am local time (3.30am GMT).
A security camera overlooking the scene captured the plane gliding in toward Vilnius Airport at a dangerously low altitude.
WATCH: DHL plane crashes down in a huge fireball in Vilnius
Suddenly the aircraft pitched to the right with the wingtip angling down and dove into the ground, erupting in a huge fireball that lit up the early morning sky.
Germany's foreign minister later said it could be have been an accident or a hybrid attack in 'volatile times'.
Shocking images from the scene showed debris strewn about frost-covered ground as firefighters raced to extinguish the blaze after the plane skidded hundreds of metres through a wood before smashing into a two-storey building.
The incident follows reports in recent months that mysterious explosions had occurred at DHL warehouses in Leipzig and Birmingham amid fears of a Russian covert sabotage operation intended to explode aircraft flying in the West.
Lithuanian Police Commissioner General Arunas Paulauskas said investigators have not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist act.
'This is one of the versions that must be studied and checked,' he said, but added: 'It was most likely due to a technical fault or a human error.'
State Security Department chief Darius Jauniskis said: 'We cannot rule out the case of terrorism. We have warned that such things are possible, we see an increasingly aggressive Russia... but we cannot make any attributions or point fingers yet.'
Miraculously, both pilots survived the ordeal, albeit with significant injuries, according to Paulauskas, who told national broadcaster LRT that rescuers managed to pull them from the wreckage.
