Aerowest Flugcenter

Cessna 303 Crusader

Whilst on a cargo flight from Braunschweig, Germany, to Oxford, England, when approximately 30 nm from the English coast, the right engine started to run roughly. On checking the fuel gauges, the pilot observed that they were indicating in the ‘red sector’. The right engine subsequently stopped, shortly followed by the left engine. The aircraft then glided from FL100 towards the Suffolk coast and ditched in the sea approximately 9.5 nm southeast of Aldeburgh. The pilot was able to abandon the aircraft, which sank quickly. He was rescued from the sea some 18 minutes later by a Royal Air Force Search and Rescue helicopter and taken to hospital, where he was found to have suffered a fractured a vertebra. The investigation determined that the aircraft had run out of fuel, due to insufficient fuel for the intended journey being on-board the aircraft at the start of the flight.

Cessna 425 Conquest

The twin engine aircraft was completing a charter flight from Riga to Paris-Le Bourget with intermediate stops in Prague and Altenrhein. On approach to Altenrhein Airport, the aircraft lost height and crashed in the Constance Lake (Bodensee) about 4 km short of runway 10, off Rorschach. Three dead bodies were found few days later and the wreckage was located at a depth of 160 metres on February 7 only. The bodies of the pilot, a female passenger and a dog were never recovered.