Private plane crashes into Baltic Sea in mysterious circumstances

A private jet has crashed into the Baltic Sea off Latvia’s coast in mysterious circumstances. 

The private plane was being followed by Nato jets – who were scrambled to follow the erratic flight which began in southern Spain. 

The jet is believed to have had four people on board and had been due to land in Cologne, Germany but instead headed out into the Baltic. 

Officials who were tracking the plane could see no one in the cockpit. 

“The aircraft was flying from Spain to Cologne, but during the flight, the aircraft changed its flight route,” the Latvian Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

“Air traffic controllers were unable to communicate with the aircraft’s crew,” it said, adding that the Cessna 551 was registered in Austria – but the owner was in Spain.

A German newspaper claims the plane had reported cabin pressure problems after take-off and contact was lost after it had cleared the Iberian peninsula. 

Fighter jets from several countries followed the private jet on its journey and rescue teams from Latvia, Sweden and Lithuania arrived at the crash area soon after the plane went into the sea. 

The aircraft crashed “when it ran out of fuel,” Sweden’s search and rescue operation leader Lars Antonsson later told AFP, adding that “no human remains have been found”.

Mr Antonsson said that rescuers “have no explanation at all, we can only speculate” about what happened “but they [the people on board] were clearly incapacitated on board”.