A fisherman has revealed the shocking moment he and his crew discovered the wreckage of a missing German plane more than 12 months after it disappeared.
Benarkle II skipper, Mark Addison, hauled in a section of the Cessna 172’s fuselage while fishing on Friday and brought it to the Greenhead Base in Lerwick.
The four-seater Cessna went missing after taking off from near Hamburg, Germany, with only the 62-year-old pilot on board on September 30, 2023.
Mark and his seven crewmates were out on the seas 70 miles east of Scotland when they stumbled across the wreckage.
The 56-year-old said he first noticed something appearing on camera, but they couldn’t be sure what it was as it was wrapped up in their net.
As they started to unravel it, the crew realised they had found the plane’s tail.
Mark told the Press and Journal: ‘There was a number on it, and once we looked it up we thought it might be best to phone the coastguard – it was coming up that it was a lost plane, with one person onboard.
‘We decided then that we were going to retrieve some of the wreckage.’
As they pulled what was left of the aircraft onto the boat, Mark said they then happened upon the human remains.
Benarkle II skipper, Mark Addison, hauled in a section of the Cessna 172’s fuselage while fishing on Friday and brought it to the Greenhead Base in Lerwick
Human remains were discovered in the wreckage of the aircraft which was found 70 miles east of Scotland
They also discovered the aircraft’s wing and tail before it broke back into the sea, the newspaper reported.
When the crew realised humans remains were inside, they immediately called the coastguard, who notified the police.
Mark told the newspaper he was glad that the remains were found so the pilot’s family could get some closure.
The pilot was reported to be experienced and in good health and he had originally intended to take his wife with him on the journey last year. The weather was also described as good conditions for flying.
But he did not file a flight plan and did not take his planned route or stay in radio contact with air traffic control.
The last radar contact with the plane was recorded by Norwegian air traffic control at 4.45pm, around seven minutes after it began descending at a rate of 1,000 feet per minute.
It had been in the air for six hours and 19 minutes, and one line of inquiry for investigators will be whether it ran out of fuel.
A search was launched after the Cessna was reported missing by its owner on October 1, when the pilot did not return at the agreed time.
The aircraft departed Germany heading for Scotland on September 30, 2023. It was discovered on Friday, December 6, by a trawler from Peterhead called the Benarkle II
A fixed-wing HM Coastguard plane was sent to search an area between Shetland and Norway the next day but was stood down when no trace could be found.
The Aviation Safety Network reported that the pilot had chartered the plane to visit relatives in Bayreuth, which was 143 nautical miles (NM) south-southeast from the Uetersen Airfield where it took off.
But the plane instead headed north-northwest and there was no radio contact with the pilot after it was in the air.
The report stated: ‘Around 4.38pm, the aircraft began descending at an average rate of 1,000 feet per minute and initially deviated to the right from the northern course, followed by numerous small course changes.
‘The last radar contact was recorded by Norwegian air traffic control at 4.45pm, approximately 70 NM southeast of the Shetland Islands (UK) and just over 500 NM from the departure airfield, at 1,700 feet AMSL (about 6 hours and 19 minutes after takeoff and 8 minutes after the descent began).
‘Since then, the aircraft and its pilot have been considered missing.’
It added: ‘At no time was there radio contact with air traffic control or flight information services in any of the countries whose airspace was flown through. Neither Denmark nor Norway recorded a landing of the aircraft. No flight plan was filed.
‘The owner reported the aircraft missing the following day (October 1, 2023) after it did not return at the agreed time.
The light aircraft was found in the water north-east of Lerwick (pictured) on Friday and was brought to shore by a fishing boat
‘The pilot’s wife had told the owner that she had initially been scheduled as a passenger on the accident flight. In the morning, the pilot had spontaneously informed her that she would not be travelling on the flight.’
The incident was investigated by the Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung, or the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation.
It concluded that ‘the forces that occurred during contact with the water surface, the low water temperature, the lack of emergency equipment’ and the fact that the plane was not reported missing until the following day ‘made this air accident on the North Sea difficult or even impossible to survive’.
An Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) spokesperson said: ‘We were informed that the remains of a German registered Cessna 172, which was lost in the North Sea in September 2023, had been recovered by a fishing vessel on December 6 and brought to shore in Shetland.
‘The loss of the aircraft was initially investigated by the Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU) of Germany. The AAIB is supporting Police Scotland and working with the BFU to assist their safety investigation.’
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said yesterday: ‘Police received a report of a small aircraft having been recovered from the water in the North Sea, north-east of Lerwick, around 2.20pm on Friday 6 December.
‘The aircraft was brought to shore on Sunday 8 December, and human remains were found within. Enquiries are ongoing.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk