VILNIUS (Reuters) – NATO fighter aircraft took off on Sunday evening to follow a Cessna plane flying over the Baltic Sea, a Lithuanian airforce spokesperson told Reuters.
The private jet is feared to be heading for a crash off the cost of Gotland, the Swedish Maritime Administration told news agency TT.
The fighter aircraft are from the NATO Baltic Air Police mission in Amari airfield in Estonia, the Lithuanian airforce spokesperson told Reuters. The mission in the airbase currently consists of four Eurofighter jets of German Air Force, according to NATO. She did not say how many jets there were or comment further.
The Austrian-registered Cessna 551 aircraft is flying from Jerez in southern Spain, from where it took off at 1256 GMT. without a set destination, according to FlightRadar24 website.
It turned twice, at Paris and Cologne, before heading straight out over the Baltic, passing near the Swedish island of Gotland. At 1737 GMT it was listed on the tracker as rapidly losing speed and altitude.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, Terje Solsvik, Tomas Escritt; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
