A private Cessna plane crashed off the coast of Latvia this afternoon, Sweden’s rescue service said, after NATO fighters took off following its path.
The Austrian-registered Cessna 551 plane was flying from Jerez in southern Spain, from where it took off at 15:56 Greek time without a specified destination, according to the website FlightRadar24.
It turned twice, at Paris and Cologne, before heading straight across the Baltic, passing close by the Swedish island of Gotland. At 20:37 it was recorded by the website rapidly losing speed and altitude.
“We have learned that the plane crashed (into the ocean) north-west of the city of Ventspils in Latvia,” said a spokesman for the Swedish rescue service. “Gone off the radar.”
A Lithuanian Air Force helicopter was sent to the crash site for search and rescue at the request of neighboring Latvia, a spokesman for the Lithuanian Air Force said. Representatives of the Latvian air traffic control and rescue services were not immediately available.
A NATO fighter jet took off earlier to follow the plane, a Lithuanian PA spokesman told Reuters. The Swedish rescue service said they reported that no one was visible in the cockpit of the Cessna.
The fighter jet took off from NATO’s Baltic air policing mission at Amari Airport in Estonia, the Lithuanian PA spokesman told Reuters.
The mission at the air base currently consists of four German Air Force Eurofighter jets, according to NATO. The spokesman did not say how many jets were there or make other comments.
Source: News Beast
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