Human remains discovered in a small plane recovered from the sea near Scotland’s coastline

Human remains have been recovered from the wreckage of a missing German plane which crashed into the North Sea more than a year ago.

The light aircraft was found in the water north-east of Lerwick, Shetland, on Friday and was brought to shore by a fishing boat on Sunday.

Police Scotland have confirmed that human remains were found inside the plane.

A trawler from Peterhead known as the Benarkle II had pulled in a part of the plane’s fuselage while fishing on Friday and transported it to the Greenhead Base in Lerwick.

Police met the trawler at the port and the plane’s wreckage was then loaded onto a truck and it has been taken for further examination.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch confirmed last night that the wreckage belonged to a German-registered Cessna 172 that disappeared over the North Sea between Shetland and Norway in September of the previous year.

According to a spokesperson for Police Scotland, they stated: ‘At approximately 2.20 pm on Friday, December 6, police were informed of the recovery of a small aircraft from the waters in the North Sea, northeast of Lerwick.’

‘The aircraft was brought to shore on Sunday 8 December, and human remains were found within. Enquiries are ongoing.’

The four-seater Cessna went missing after taking off from near Hamburg, Germany, with only the 62-year-old pilot on board at 10.27am on September 30 2023.

The pilot was reported to be experienced and in good health and he had originally intended to take his wife with him. The weather was 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.

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 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.’

Following the discovery of the wreckage, one well-wisher in Shetland posted on social media: ‘Hopefully closure for family of the pilot and plane that went missing last October.’

MailOnline has contacted Police Scotland for further comment.