Private plane crashes in the Baltic Sea – four people on board – VG

Wrecks and oil spills were seen in the waters after the crash of a private plane in the Baltic Sea. Aviation authorities were unable to contact the pilot or others on board the plane before the crash.

At 20:09, the Swedish Coast Guard reported that their planes noticed oil leaks in the water and debris as the private plane was said to have crashed.

– Debris and oil have been observed in the water and it does not look good. Lina Buurstsra, assistant director of air rescue at VG’s Swedish Naval and Air Rescue Center, says the chances of finding survivors are very low.

– The plane crashed in the territory of Latvia. Swedish resources are there with a search and rescue helicopter and a Coast Guard aircraft. The helicopter does not have much time in the area because it has to refuel. You may stay on the Coast Guard plane for several hours.

on the site Flightradar.com You can see that the plane took off from Jerez in southern Spain this morning and was scheduled to land in Cologne, Germany. The German newspaper reported that shortly after take-off, cabin pressure problems were reported picture.

The same newspaper reported that there should be four people on board. A pilot, a woman, a man and a daughter.

At 19:47 several media reported that the aircraft, a Cessna 551, had crashed in the Baltic Sea outside the Latvian city of Ventspils.

You must land in Cologne

The Austrian private plane was supposed to have landed in Cologne, Germany, but continued in the direction of Swedish airspace without contacting the pilot, Dagens Nyheter reported.

Sweden’s air rescue service fears the plane will continue flying until it runs out of fuel. The cause of the crash is currently unknown.

So no one in the cockpit

German and Danish fighters were ready to find out what happened in the plane.

– Lars Antonson at the Swedish Air Rescue Center said the hope is to make contact with the crew, but they don’t see any crew in the cockpit.

Swedish air safety expert Hans Kell says the pressure drop may have occurred in the cabin, and this may have caused the pilot to lose consciousness.

– This is an aircraft that can reach an altitude of about 12,000 meters. A drop in pressure at this altitude will cause you to lose consciousness very quickly. It takes between ten and twenty seconds.

At 9,000 meters, it takes a few minutes before the lack of oxygen causes you to lose consciousness, he says.

– The pressure drop can also come “offside”. It’s equally scary, he says.

Hans Kiel is an aviation safety analyst and previously worked for the Swedish aviation authorities. A former pilot and trained engineer, he is often used as an expert in the Swedish media.

He says there could be several reasons for a pressure drop in the cabin of an airplane.

This could be due to a crack in the airframe, or cracked window glass. It could also be because the pump that supplies the cabin with oxygen isn’t working properly, or for other technical reasons, he says.

The head of aviation safety at the Norwegian Pilots’ Association, Stian Holmemo Kvam, told VG that the accident in the Baltic Sea had a connection to the so-called Helios accident in 2005.

121 people died when the plane crashed in Greece after what was said to be a sudden and severe drop in pressure.

It is not easy to detect a drop in pressure if it occurs surreptitiously. If there is a direct drop in pressure, an alarm will be triggered in the cockpit. Then the procedures are that the oxygen masks must be put on immediately.

Holmlimo Kvam says he himself has been training in an airlock and has witnessed what happens when the body gets too little oxygen.

At first it is not easy to spot the symptoms, but this is something all pilots are trained in.