Four people are feared dead after a private plane reportedly carrying “a family” crashed into the Baltic Sea off the Latvia coast after “rapidly losing altitude”, according to Daily Mail.
NATO jets scrambled to intercept the Austrian-registered Cessna 551 aircraft before it crashed into the sea.
According to FlightRadar24 data, the private jet took off from southern Spain without a destination. Before heading straight over the Baltic, the plane turned twice at Paris and Cologne and passed near the Swedish island of Gotland.
German news site Bild reported that the plane was to land at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany, but it faced pressure problems in the cabin shortly after the take-off.
According to local reports, four people were on board the plane including the pilot, a man, a woman and their daughter.
Though rescue efforts are underway, officials have warned that the chance of finding survivors is slim.
“We’ve learned that the plane has crashed (in the ocean) north-west of the town of Ventspils in Latvia,” Daily Mail quoted a spokesperson for Sweden’s rescue service, adding that the plane “has disappeared from the radar”.
The Mirror reported that the Swedish Maritime Administration has dispatched rescue boats, planes and a helicopter to the crash site, with the country’s coast guards confirming that the wreckage has been found.
Earlier, a Lithuanian air force spokesperson informed that fighter aircraft from the NATO Baltic Air Police mission in Amari airfield in Estonia had taken off to follow the plane, without giving any more details.
(With inputs from agencies)
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