The ghost flight of a private jet over half of Europe raises numerous questions. An expert suspects that a drop in pressure in the machine made the occupants unconscious. The victims are said to be the family of a Cologne entrepreneur - but so far there has been no trace of them.
After a mysterious odyssey across Europe, a private plane crashed off the coast of Latvia, which apparently had four people from Germany on board. The course change of the Cessna 551 en route from southern Spain to Cologne triggered the deployment of fighter jets from Germany and other European countries on Sunday. Many questions about the crash remain unanswered. What do we now know about the circumstances of the catastrophe?
What plane was it?
The aircraft was a Cessna Citation II/SP (model 551) jet engine, as reported by the Swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheter". It is a small twin-jet jet that can accommodate up to ten passengers in addition to one pilot. The Cessna with the registration number OE-FGR was built in 1979. According to information from the Austrian news agency APA, the jet was registered in Austria and licensed to a German company.
Who was on board?
Entrepreneur Peter Griesemann, honorary president of the Blaue Funken carnival association in Cologne, his wife, daughter and their partner are said to have been on board the Cessna, various media reports. Griesemann is part of the Griesemann Group, which also owns a charter company for private jets.
The entrepreneur controlled the machine himself, reports, among other things, the "Express", citing the man's family environment. According to a report in the "Bild" newspaper, both the 72-year-old entrepreneur and his 26-year-old daughter have a pilot's license. There was initially no official information about the inmates. The Cologne police said they were "not involved". When asked, the Griesemann Group said it was not currently making any statements.
Which route did the plane take?
The private plane took off from Jerez in southern Spain at 12:56 p.m. on Sunday. From there it flew over France towards Germany. Actually, the plane should have landed at Cologne-Bonn Airport in the early evening. However, the Cessna flew past the destination airport Cologne/Bonn with undiminished height and speed, further over North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to over the Baltic Sea, according to police circles.
Eventually the machine entered Swedish airspace, flew south of Gotland and continued its flight towards the Gulf of Riga. West of the Latvian capital Riga, it began to descend at 5:31 p.m. and finally crashed into the sea off the Latvian port of Ventspils.
What was the reason for the crash?
Authorities believe the Cessna was on autopilot during its ghost flight. The plane eventually crashed when "it ran out of fuel," Swedish search and rescue director Lars Antonsson told AFP. The people on board were "clearly" unable to react. A Swedish Coast Guard plane eventually spotted the crash site west of the Latvian port of Ventspils before the search operations began.
Were the passengers unconscious?
The "Bild" newspaper reported that the Cessna reported pressure problems in the cabin after takeoff. The flight safety expert Hans Kjäll suspected, according to the Swedish broadcaster SVT, 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 the pressure drops at such an altitude, you can expect to lose consciousness, he said.
Oxygen masks are also available in private jets to prevent a lack of oxygen. But if a problem occurs at high altitude, it can happen very quickly - a pilot's reaction time, known in specialist circles as the "time of useful consciousness", is only around 30 to 60 seconds at 11,000 meters.
How did the combat aircraft work?
Combat aircraft from France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden accompanied the machine on its way through the airspaces of several countries. In the airspace over France, a squad from the French army took over, before a squad from Neuburg an der Donau and later from Rostock-Laage took off in German airspace. They saw no one in the cockpit and there was no radio contact with the crew.
The Air Force pilots did not assume any acute threat because the jet was apparently on autopilot, reports the "Spiegel" with reference to Bundeswehr circles. It was calculated during the flight that the machine would reach the Baltic Sea without a driver and crash there due to a lack of fuel. It was also clear that the route would not lead through a densely populated area or major events, which is why the plane was only accompanied, the report says.
Have the victims already been rescued?
According to the Latvian aviation authority, boats and helicopters were used at the crash site. So far, a larger piece of the wreckage and several pieces of debris have been found, but no passengers. "We continue to search for survivors," the head of the Latvian Sea Rescue Coordination Center, Peteris Subbota, told the Swedish news agency TT. In addition, they want to track down more wreckage and ensure that no oil has leaked.
What's next?
According to the head of the Latvian Accident Investigation Board, Anita Skinuma, the crash occurred in neutral waters. Therefore, the investigation could be carried out both by the country where the aircraft is registered and by the country whose nationals were on board. So far, however, nothing has been found that would indicate the nationality of the inmates, she told the Latvian news agency Leta.
