After the mysterious crash of a private plane: rescuers find body parts in the Baltic Sea
Created: 07/09/2022, 05:05
By: Richard Strobl, Patrick Mayer
A German private jet crashes after a "ghost flight" over the Baltic Sea.
What happened in the cockpit of the Cessna is initially unclear.
Rescuers find body parts.
The news ticker.
After a
plane crash
in the
Baltic Sea
: rescuers find body parts in the sea
Authorities suspect the machine was flying on
autopilot
: interceptors did not recognize any movements in the cockpit.
Company confirms
identity
of missing persons: Pilot of the Cessna was apparently a company founder.
Mysterious
ghost
flight: On Sunday, a German small plane crashed over the Baltic Sea.
This news ticker about
a Cessna plane crash over the Baltic Sea
is constantly updated.
Update from September 6, 4:50 p.m
.: On Sunday evening, a private jet belonging to a Cologne entrepreneur crashed into the Baltic Sea off Latvia.
The Cessna 551 was actually supposed to land in Cologne.
Shortly after takeoff, the pilot reported pressure problems in the cabin.
Then the radio contact broke off.
After a random flight over Europe - presumably controlled by an autopilot - the machine disappears from the radar.
Four people were on board.
Human remains were found during the search, the Latvian Navy spokeswoman, Liva Veita, confirmed to the Leta news agency on Tuesday.
They were handed over to the criminal police.
In the vicinity of the crash site, the search will continue in the coming days.
First of all, it is still unclear whether the Cessna is equipped with a black box.
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.
After a plane crash in the Baltic Sea: rescuers find body parts in the sea
Update from September 6, 12:06 p.m
.: After the Cessna crash in the Baltic Sea, rescue workers may have found human body parts in the sea.
The remains were discovered on Monday evening in the Baltic Sea before nightfall, the spokeswoman for the Latvian Navy, Liva Veita, told the Latvian agency Leta on Tuesday, the dpa news agency reported 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.
Parts of the wreckage of the private jet that crashed had already been found.
The Cologne entrepreneur's Cessna probably sank at the crash site, Subbota suspects.
There is now a search in the sea for larger parts of the aircraft.
"We use special equipment from the Navy for this purpose," says Subbota.
For example, drones are to be used to search under the sea surface.
Cessna crashes in the Baltic Sea: What happened in the cockpit is initially unclear
Update from September 6, 11 a.m
.: Search teams are still on duty off the coast of Latvia on Tuesday.
According to the Latvian authorities, a total of eleven fragments of the crashed machine have been found in the sea so far.
There is still no trace of the inmates.
After a random flight across Europe, a Cessna 551 crashed in the Baltic Sea on Sunday.
According to the authorities, four people were on board.
The private plane belonged to the Cologne entrepreneur and carnival president Karl Peter Griesemann (72).
Griesemann was on his way from Spain to Cologne with his wife Juliane (68), his daughter (28) and her partner (27).
Griesemann, an experienced pilot, launches the Cessna at Jerez Airport (southern Spain).
According to the authorities, it is still unclear what happened in the cockpit.
"We have no explanation, we can only speculate," said Antonsson.
However, the Spanish authorities sounded the alarm shortly after take-off and contacted the French Air Force.
According to the French Air Force, the Cessna apparently had pressure problems in the cabin.
Company confirms the identity of the missing persons: the pilot of the Cessna was apparently the company founder
Update from September 5, 9:41 p.m .:
Even the day after the mysterious ghost flight, some questions remained unanswered.
But at least the identity of the inmates seems clear.
On Monday evening, the systems engineering company Griesemann from Wesseling near Cologne confirmed that the four missing persons were the company founder Peter Griesemann, two family members and one other person.
You are dismayed.
Griesemann retired in 2015.
"We continue to search for survivors," the head of Latvia's sea rescue coordination center, Peteris Subbota, told Swedish news agency TT on Monday.
Authorities assume that Cessna was on autopilot
The authorities are currently assuming that the jet-powered Cessna was on autopilot.
It flew past the destination airport Cologne/Bonn with undiminished height and speed and then over North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to over the Baltic Sea, according to police circles.
West of the Latvian capital Riga, she went into descent.
At times, French and German interceptors accompanied the machine.
No movements were recognizable in the cockpit.
According to the Swedish broadcaster SVT, flight safety expert Hans Kjäll suspected that there could have been a pressure drop in the cabin of the aircraft, after which the occupants had become unconscious.
The plane was flying at an altitude of about 11,000 meters, where the air pressure is low.
If there is a drop in pressure at such an altitude, you can expect to become unconscious, he said.
Latvian rescue workers find eleven fragments of the crashed machine
Update from September 5, 7:33 p.m .:
After the mysterious crash of a plane in the Baltic Sea, Latvian rescue workers found a total of eleven fragments of the accident machine.
According to Latvian Navy spokeswoman Liva Veita, ten pieces of wreckage were discovered in the sea on Monday.
Another had previously been found on Sunday, she told the Latvian news agency Leta.
However, there is still no trace of the inmates.
The image provided by Flightradar24 shows the trajectory of a Cessna 551 before it crashed into the Baltic Sea.
So far there is no trace of the four occupants.
© Flightradar24/dpa +++ dpa picture radio +++
"Active searches are currently underway to recover the remains of this aircraft and most likely the deceased as well.
As soon as this work is completed, an appropriate active investigation into the plane accident will be launched,” Aivis Vincevs from the Latvian Civil Aviation Authority told Latvian Radio.
It is not yet known which country will be responsible for investigating the accident, as the plane crashed into the sea and sank in neutral waters.
Ships of the Latvian Navy and the Border Guard are used for sea searches.
According to Veita, a drone from the European Maritime Safety Agency was also involved in the search operation.
On Tuesday, drones will also be used to search under water.
Sad certainty?
Apparently details of the four Germans who died were known
Update from September 5th, 6:15 p.m .:
Sad certainty?
As reported by the Cologne
Express
on Monday, the four Germans who died in the Baltic Sea are said to be the Rhenish company Peter Griesemann (72), his wife Juliane, their 26-year-old daughter Lisa (26) and her boyfriend (27). .
The newspaper refers to Griesemann's family environment.
He started as a pilot with a small Cessna 551 aircraft from Jerez in southern Spain with the destination Cologne.
Immediately after take-off in Spain, however, the radio communication broke down on Sunday evening. According to various reports, there were pressure problems in the machine, which could lead to unconsciousness of the passengers.
According to aviation experts, the Cessna continued to fly uncontrolled until it crashed off the coast of Latvia.
The rescue work by the Latvian coast guard is ongoing, and according to the authorities there is little hope of survivors.
New details about the crash of a small plane: Cologne entrepreneur had an accident over the Baltic Sea?
Update from September 5, 11:25 a.m .:
New details about the crash of a small plane over the Baltic Sea.
As the Swedish daily newspapers
Dagens Nyheter
and
Aftonbladet
write, four people were on board the Cessna 551 with flight number OE-FGR.
It is said to be the 72-year-old owner of the plane, his wife, 26-year-old daughter and a 27-year-old man.
It should all be German.
As the German Air Force confirmed on Twitter, among other things, the small aircraft coming from Spain had crossed German airspace and then crashed in front of Latvia over the Baltic Sea.
According to various media reports, contact with the pilot is said to have already broken off in northern France.
According to initial findings, the pilot is said to have lost consciousness due to a loss of pressure in the cabin.
Contact with the machine then broke off, which is why German Eurofighters rose over Germany and the Baltic Sea to accompany the Cessna and check the situation.
Luftwaffe Eurofighters take off: fighter jets accompany “ghost machine” until it crashes off Latvia
Shortly before the alleged crash, the private jet OEFGR made a sudden U-turn.
© Screenshot: adsbexchange.com
As the Air Force explained, a so-called alarm squad consisting of two Eurofighters each rose alternately in Neuburg an der Donau, then in Rostock-Laage and finally over the Estonian Ämari.
Several German fighter jets are stationed in Estonia to secure NATO's eastern flank in the Baltic States because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
According to initial information, the small plane should have flown from Jerez in southern Spain to Cologne.
As the Rhineland-based
Express
writes, the crashed pilot was allegedly Peter Griesemann, honorary president of the Blaue Funken carnival association in Cologne, and owner of the Griesemann Group.
This should also include the company GG Rent, a charter company for private jets based in Bergisch-Gladbach.
So far, there has been no confirmation from the company or from the German authorities.
As the
Aftonbladet
further reports, oil stains and wreckage were found at the suspected crash site just outside the Latvian city of Ventspils.
“This plane crashed.
The chances of finding survivors are minimal, ”explained Lars Antonsson from the Swedish
Center for sea and air rescue.
The Latvian coast guard is said to be at the alleged accident site.
Private jet wanted to Cologne: Cessna crashes after "ghost flight" over the Baltic Sea
First report from September 5th
: Visby/Ventspils – A private jet of the Cessna type has apparently crashed into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Latvia.
Four people are said to have been on board.
However, there are some mysterious inconsistencies related to the flight.
The plane took off from Jerez in southern Spain in the early evening, as reported by the Swedish newspaper
Dagens Nyheter
, among others.
Actually, the Cessna should have landed in Cologne.
But she just kept flying.
Air traffic control is said to have then tried to contact the pilot.
But received no answer.
Geister-Cessna lets Bundeswehr fighter jets rise
As a result, at least one Bundeswehr fighter jet is said to have started to accompany the machine and find out what was going on on board.
The Air Force confirmed in the evening that these were so-called alarm squads, consisting of two Eurofighters.
Previously also reported the
picture
.
According to the newspaper's report, the radio link with the Cessna broke shortly after leaving Spanish airspace.
The plane then flew straight through France.
According to the report, the Bundeswehr fighter jet was unable to gain any insight and turned off again behind Rügen.
A Danish fighter jet is said to have taken over here.
According to the Swedish Sea and Air Rescue Center, none of the pilots of the fighter jets could see anyone in the Cessna's cockpit.
This is reported in turn by
Dagens Nyheter.
According to the air rescue center, there should have been four passengers on board the machine.
According to
image
information, it should have been the pilot and a man, a woman and their daughter.
Private jet makes sudden U-turn - and then disappears from radar
At 7.35 p.m. the aircraft is said to have lost altitude and speed.
Shortly before the Latvian city of Ventspils, there was a hard change of course.
The Cessna made a 180 degree turn and flew back.
At 8 p.m., the aircraft then completely disappeared from the Flight Radar air traffic control website.
Then Swedish rescue helicopters and other forces flew to the site.
A rescue helicopter was then able to find wreckage and an oil slick in the water.
The chance of finding survivors is zero, writes the
Dagens Nyheter
, citing the rescue workers.
Private jet crashes in the Baltic Sea: Report of a problem message from the cabin
How the incident could have happened remains completely open.
Aviation expert Jan Ohlsson told the Swedish newspaper that there were several possible causes.
Among other things, the passengers could have lost consciousness if the air pressure had dropped.
This option currently seems the most likely.
The
picture
even reports that the machine had reported pressure problems in the cabin after taking off in Spain.
After radio contact with France was broken, the machine was continuously accompanied by fighter jets.
A squad of the French army took over in the airspace over France, before a squad from Neuburg an der Donau and later from Rostock-Laage took off in German airspace.
