After a small plane with four occupants crashed into the Baltic Sea, many questions remain unanswered. An international rescue mission is in action.
Riga/Cologne – Many questions remain unanswered after a private plane crashed over the Baltic Sea. The Cessna 551 with four people on board was en route from Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain to Cologne on Sunday (4 September). Suddenly, however, she changed course for an unknown reason and finally crashed off the coast of Latvia, according to the Latvian Aviation Authority. Previously, all contact with the plane was lost, whereupon military jets were sent to the rescue.
The newspaper “El País” reported, citing Spanish sources familiar with the incident, from a German family who are said to have heard the machine – an elderly man, his wife, a daughter of the couple and a man her age. According to information from the Austrian news agency APA, the jet was registered in Austria and licensed to a German company.
Plane crash: Cessna should have landed in Cologne-Bonn – “can only speculate”
The Cessna had flown over Swedish airspace over the Baltic Sea before crashing into the sea just before 20:00 CEST off the Latvian port of Ventspils. The flight was relatively steady, then the machine lost altitude just before the Latvian coast. According to the head of the Swedish search and rescue mission, Lars Antonsson, it crashed “when the tank was empty”. Actually, the plane should have landed at Cologne-Bonn Airport in the early evening. But why the machine then deviated from the course remained unclear. “We have no explanation at all, we can only speculate,” said Antonsson. “But they were clearly not operational on board.”
According to initial findings, the pilot may have lost consciousness. Aviation safety expert Hans Kjäll told Swedish news agency TT pressure problems could have caused passengers to lose consciousness. This can happen quickly, especially at altitudes where small aircraft are used.
Rescue mission saw no one in Cessna cockpit – no remains found
In the evening there was a rescue mission with international forces – boats, helicopters and fighter jets from the German Armed Forces and other European countries such as France, Denmark and Sweden. In the airspace over France, a squad from the French army took over, before a squad from Neuburg an der Donau and later from Rostock-Laage took off in German airspace.
According to both the French and Swedish armies, their pilots could not see anyone in the Cessna’s cockpit. Attempts to make contact by radio also failed. The head of the Latvian sea rescue coordination center said on Latvian television that searches were being coordinated and the area was being combed. Mortal remains were not initially found, as the head of the Swedish search and rescue mission, Lars Antonsson, told the AFP news agency. (tk with afp/dpa)
