For the passengers of the small plane that crashed into the Baltic Sea on Sunday, there is probably no more hope. The rescue workers find not only wreckage, but now also human remains. It is still a mystery how the crash could have happened.
After the mysterious crash of a plane in the Baltic Sea, human remains have been found near the crash site. This is reported by the Latvian news portal "LSM", citing the Latvian sea rescue coordination authority. "We discovered human remains on Tuesday, which were handed over to the criminal investigation department for further investigation," the site quoted its director, Peteris Subbota as saying. The remains were discovered on Monday evening in the Baltic Sea before nightfall, Latvian Navy spokeswoman Liva Veita told the Latvian agency Leta.
Rescue workers had previously found fragments of the accident machine, a Cessna 551. According to Veita, ten pieces of wreckage were discovered in the sea on Monday. Another was previously located on Sunday, she said. "Today we will start an underwater search looking for most of the aircraft that most likely sank right at the crash site, using special Navy equipment," Subbota said. For example, drones are to be used to search under the sea surface.
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 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 announced on Monday evening that the four missing persons were the company founder Peter Griesemann, two family members and one other person. The Cologne "Express" reported, citing the family environment, that Griesemann had left southern Spain with his wife Juliane, daughter Lisa and her friend.
The Foreign Office said on Monday: "Our embassy in Riga is in close contact with the Latvian authorities and is trying to clarify the facts." Ships of the Latvian Navy and the Border Guard are used for sea searches. 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, Aivis Vincevs from the Latvian Civil Aviation Authority told Latvian Radio.
