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Four people were aboard a private jet that was scheduled to land in Germany but continued to fly across Europe despite repeated attempts to make contact by air traffic controllers. The aircraft crashed on Sunday off the coast of Latvia, according to authorities. According to a statement from the Latvian civil aviation office, the jet was “flying between Spain and Cologne but when it hit the barrier, air traffic controllers were unable to make touch.”
As the Austrian-registered plane continued to travel across northern Europe, fighter jets from Germany, Denmark, and Sweden were dispatched to try to make contact with the crew in the air. However, according to Swedish search and rescue procedure leader Lars Antonsson, “they saw no one.”
Just before 8:00 p.m., the Cessna 551, which was flying into Swedish airspace in the Baltic Sea, crashed into the water off Ventspils (1800 GMT).
Up until it got close to the Latvian coast, the plane flew rather consistently before losing altitude quickly.
According to Antonsson, it crashed “when it ran out of gasoline.”
It was not immediately known what countries the four on board were from.
The Latvian aviation agency reported that teams of rescuers from Sweden, Latvia, and Lithuania were working at the crash site with boats and helicopters.
Sweden’s Antonsson added, “No human remains have been discovered.
The reason the plane flew off course is unknown.
They were obviously incapacitated on board, Antonsson said, adding that “we have no explanation at all, we can only speculate” as to what occurred.
