After a small plane with four occupants crashed into the Baltic Sea, many questions remain unanswered. An international rescue mission is in action.
Update from Thursday, September 8th, 2022, 11:37 a.m .: The wreck of the small plane that crashed into the Baltic Sea has apparently been found. The Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) confirmed this to Focus Online . Accordingly, there was no black box on board, which makes it difficult to investigate the cause of the accident. The Cessna 551 crashed on Sunday (September 4) with four occupants.
Cessna small plane crashed in the Baltic Sea – no hope for survivors
Update from Wednesday, September 7th, 2022, 12:24 p.m .: According to the Latvian authorities, all four occupants died in the mysterious crash of a private plane over the Baltic Sea. “It is now clear that there is no hope of finding any survivors. Because yesterday’s finds show that the crash was particularly violent,” said the head of the Latvian Sea Rescue Coordination Center, Peteris Subbota, on Tuesday evening (September 6) on Latvian television. “The speed at the time of impact was very high and the plane broke up into many small pieces.”
During their search at sea, the rescue workers initially recovered several wreckage parts and debris from the crashed machine from the sea. On Tuesday, the search with special equipment continued under water. Human body parts were also found near the crash site before nightfall on Monday evening. The identity of the passengers has not yet been officially confirmed. The systems engineering company Griesemann from Wesseling near Cologne has informed the dpa that the four missing are the company founder Peter Griesemann as well as two family members and one other person.
Mysterious crash over the Baltic Sea – human body parts discovered at the crash site
Update from Tuesday, September 6th, 2022, 12.15 p.m .: After the mysterious crash of a plane in the Baltic Sea, Latvian rescue workers may have found human body parts in the sea when searching for the accident machine and occupants. The remains were discovered on Monday evening in the Baltic Sea before nightfall, Latvian Navy spokeswoman Liva Veita told the Latvian agency Leta on Tuesday. The head of the Latvian sea rescue coordination center, Peteris Subbota, confirmed the find on Latvian radio, which had been taken to Ventspils and handed over to the criminal police for investigation.
Cessna small plane crashed over the Baltic Sea – Mysterious random flight on the way from Spain to Cologne
First report from Monday, September 5th, 2022: Riga/Cologne – After the crash of a private plane over the Baltic Sea, many questions remain unanswered. 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)
