Private jet 'carrying family' crashes into Baltic Sea after fighter jets scrambled

4 September 2022, 21:16 | Updated: 4 September 2022, 21:18

Four people are feared dead after a private jet crashed into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Latvia.

The Cessna 551, which was flying from Jerez in southern Spain, crashed off the coast of Latvia on Sunday evening, Sweden's rescue service said.

The flight took off at 12.56 GMT (13.56 BST) without a set destination, according to the FlightRadar24 website.

The private jet turned twice, at Paris and Cologne, before heading straight out over the Baltic and rapidly losing speed and altitude.

"We've learned that the plane has crashed (in the ocean) north-west of the town of Ventspils in Latvia," a spokesperson for Sweden's rescue service said. "It has disappeared from the radar."

According to German Bild, a pilot, a woman, a man and their daughter were all flying when the plane came down in mysterious circumstances during its erratic flight.

The outlet reports that shortly after take-off, the plane reported that there was a problem with the pressure in the cabin.

Contact was lost, just outside the Iberian Peninsula.

German and Danish war planes had earlier been sent to inspect the aircraft as it passed through those countries' airspace, but were unable to make contact, Johan Wahlstrom of the Swedish Maritime Administration said.

"They could not see anyone in the cockpit," he said.

A Lithuanian air force helicopter was dispatched to the crash site for search and rescue, a Lithuanian air force spokesperson said.

Latvia said it had sent ships to the scene.

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