On Sunday, an Austrian-registered private plane took off from Spain and was due to land in Germany, but crashed into the Baltic Sea near Latvia. The circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear.
The Latvian authorities have reported that an oil slick and plane wreckage were found at sea and that the rescue operation was hampered by darkness.
The aircraft suddenly lost altitude as it approached the Latvian coast. According to Lars Antonsson, head of the Swedish search and rescue operation, it crashed "when it ran out of fuel".
Rescue teams from Latvia, Sweden, and Lithuania are working at the scene.
According to Antonsson, "no human remains have been found so far". It is also not known why the plane veered off course.
"We have no explanation, we can only speculate" about the cause of the crash, "but it is clear that the people on board were incapacitated", he said.
According to Spanish media, the private Cessna 551 plane was flown by the owner of Quick Air, a charter jet service. His wife and two children were also reportedly on board.
NATO jets tracked the plane, which was flying from southern Spain and was due to land in Cologne, Germany, before changing course.
The German newspaper Bild reported that the plane reported a cabin pressure problem after take-off. Communication was lost as the aircraft flew over the Iberian Peninsula.
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