2022 Baltic Sea Cessna Citation II crash
GG Rent Cessna 551 Citation II/SP · Crashed into the sea; under investigation
From Jerez Airport (XRY) to Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA22WA268
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 4
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Unknown
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cessna 551 Citation II/SP
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 551
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- OE-FGR
- Operator
- GG Rent
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Jerez Airport (XRY)To Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 4 September 2022, a chartered Cessna 551 business jet registered in Austria was scheduled to fly from Jerez, Spain, to Cologne, Germany. Early in the flight the aircraft's pilot notified air traffic control about a cabin pressure malfunction. After the aircraft passed the Iberian Peninsula, no further contact could be established.
The aircraft, which climbed to its assigned altitude at 36,000 ft, slightly turned near Paris and Cologne, where it failed to make a landing, and continued straight on its northeastern course, flying over Germany and then out for almost two hours and 1,120 km over the Baltic Sea near Denmark and Sweden. Fuel was eventually exhausted when the aircraft was over the Baltic Sea, approximately 37 km off Ventspils, Latvia, and crashed into the water in a spiral dive after an uncontrolled descent.
History of the flight
The aircraft, which was approved for operation with one pilot, took off from Jerez in southern Spain. The pilot reported a cabin pressure problem shortly before ATC contact was lost. The Cessna 551 Citation II was flying at 36,000 ft at the time. Shortly after its entry into French airspace, around 14:25 UTC, the Cessna was intercepted by one Dassault Rafale, scrambled from Mont-de-Marsan Air Base. A second Rafale from Saint-Dizier – Robinson Air Base took over the interception. The Cessna was continuously followed by the French Air Force until it reached Cologne, around 15:57 UTC, when the German Air Force took over.
Two German Eurofighter Typhoon jets were scrambled from the Rostock-Laage air base at 16:15 GMT. Their attempts to contact the aircraft crew were unsuccessful. At 16:50 GMT, Shortly after they reached the island of Rügen, the German fighter pilots broke away. The plane entered Swedish airspace, where it flew south of Gotland and on towards the Gulf of Riga.
A Danish F-16 fighter took over the escort of the ghost flight. Later, the Danish Air Force said they could not see anybody in the cockpit after intercepting the plane. The Danish jet pilots witnessed the plane going into a downward spiral and crashing 37 km off the shoreline of Latvia, far beyond the outer edge of the Latvian territorial sea, at around 17:45 GMT.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
According to the provisional report, everyone on board the plane, including the pilot Griesemann, became unconscious shortly after asking a Spanish air traffic controller for permission to descend due to problems on board.
The aircraft continued to fly on autopilot until it exhausted all of its fuel and crashed into the Baltic Sea.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2022 Baltic Sea Cessna Citation II crash” (revision 1348635930, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2022 Baltic Sea Cessna Citation II crash
- Revision
- 1348635930 · 2026-04-13 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q113720757
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA22WA268
- Event ID
- 20220906105864
- Case number
- GAA22WA268
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2022 Baltic Sea Cessna Citation II crash" (page 71675266, revision 1348635930); merged with NTSB case GAA22WA268 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record GAA22WA268
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2022 Baltic Sea Cessna Citation II crash" and NTSB case GAA22WA268, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.