Plane crash in the Baltic Sea: emergency services find body parts

Created: 09/06/2022Updated: 09/06/2022 10:35 p.m

The image provided by Flightradar24 shows the trajectory of a Cessna 551 before it crashed into the Baltic Sea.

© Flightradar24/dpa

After a plane crashed in the Baltic Sea, rescuers found human remains during their search.

Did a German businessman and his family die in the accident?

According to the Latvian authorities, there is no longer any hope of survivors.

According to the Latvian authorities, all occupants of the crashed plane died in the mysterious crash of a plane in the Baltic Sea.

"It is now clear that there is no hope of finding survivors," said the head of the Latvian Sea Rescue Coordination Center, Peteris Subbota, on Latvian television on Tuesday evening.

According to the finds so far during the search operation in the sea, this is the first conclusion to be drawn about the moment of impact.

"The speed at the time of impact was very high and the plane broke up into many small pieces."

After several pieces of wreckage and debris from the crashed machine were recovered from the sea, the rescuers have now also found human body parts near the crash site.

The remains were handed over to the criminal police for further investigation.

They were discovered on Monday evening in the Baltic Sea before dark.

Many questions about the accident and its cause remained unanswered.

The private plane flew over the Baltic Sea on Sunday on its way from Spain to Cologne.

There it crashed into the sea in the evening off the coast west of the Latvian port of Ventspils.

Communication with the Cessna 551 with four people on board had been interrupted for a long time before the accident.

The identity of the passengers has not yet been officially confirmed.

The systems engineering company Griesemann from Wesseling near Cologne had announced that the four missing persons were the company founder Peter Griesemann, two family members and one other person.

Ships of the Latvian Navy and the Border Guard are used for sea searches.

With the help of special equipment, the search continued under water on Tuesday.

“An autonomous robot that scans the sea floor along a pre-programmed route was used.

And when he returns to the ship, the information will be analyzed," Subbota said.

The goal is to get as many clues as possible.

It is unclear how often the robot has to dive into the Baltic Sea, which is about 60 meters deep at this point.

Work is expected to continue in the coming days, Subbota said.

According to him, the aircraft, which was registered to an aviation company belonging to the Griesemann family, may not have a black box.

This could make it more difficult to determine the cause of the crash, which has not yet been clarified.

The crash site is about 35 kilometers off the Latvian coast in neutral waters.

Griesemann is a Rhenish medium-sized company that claims to have more than 1,600 employees in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands and that works in lightning protection, among other things.

The current company boss is the son of the founder, who retired in 2015.

The news of the possible death of Griesemann, who is also active as a carnival participant, triggered sadness and horror in Cologne.

Mayor Henriette Reker was dismayed by the "tragic accident" in a message to the family.

dpa