Human remains have been found inside the wreckage of a small plane recovered from the North Sea near Shetland.
The light aircraft was found in the water north-east of Lerwick on Friday and was brought to shore by a fishing boat yesterday.
Police Scotland have confirmed that human remains were found inside the plane.
A trawler from Peterhead called the Benarkle II had hauled in a section of the plane’s fuselage while fishing and brought 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 is understood to have been taken for further examination.
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: ‘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.’
The plane’s identity has yet to be confirmed but in October 2023 there were reports that a Cessna 172S Skyhawk had gone missing over the North Sea between Shetland and Norway.
The aircraft was found at about 2.20pm on Friday in waters north east of Lerwick
It had taken off from Germany with only the 62-year-old pilot on board at 10.27am on September 30 and is understood not to have filed a flight plan.
The pilot was reported to be experienced and in good health and he had originally intended to take his wife with him.
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.
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 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 light aircraft was found in the water north-east of Lerwick (pictured) on Friday and was brought to shore by a fishing boat yesterday.
‘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’.
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.