The private plane that crashed on Sunday in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Latvia after taking off from Spain, without responding to the calls of air traffic controllers, belonged to a well-known German businessman – Karl-Peter Griesemann, his company, Quick Air, announced on Monday, writes Reuters.

According to FlightRadar24, the Austrian-registered Cessna 551 was flying from Jerez in southern Spain, departing at 12:56 GMT with no fixed destination. At 17:37 GMT it began to rapidly lose speed and altitude.

The plane disappeared from radar and fell into the sea off the coast of Latvia.

German and Danish warplanes were sent to look for the plane as it passed through those countries’ airspace, but were unable to make contact with it, said Johan Wallstrom of the Swedish Maritime Administration.

In turn, the Spanish air traffic control service reported that it lost contact with the plane in the airspace over the city of Toledo less than an hour after takeoff. The French air traffic service was alerted and two fighter jets were sent to watch the plane.

Who owns the plane that crashed

“I can confirm that it was a private plane that belonged to our owner Karl-Peter Griesemann,” said a spokesman for Quick Air, a medical aviation company in Cologne.

The Cologne-based Express newspaper reported that 72-year-old Griesemann was piloting the plane and that his wife, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend were on board. His daughter, 26, had a pilot’s license.

However, the press secretary of the German businessman’s company did not confirm the information.

The cause of the accident is unknown.

Shortly after it was announced that the plane had crashed into the sea near the Latvian town of Ventspils, teams from Latvia, Sweden and Lithuania were dispatched to the scene, as well as a passenger ferry to assist in rescue operations.

A piece of the plane and an oil stain were seen near the crash site, said the head of the Latvian search and rescue team, Peteris Subbota. No human remains were found.