North Rhine-Westphalia

At 1541 hrs, the airplane took off from Marl-Lohmühle Airfield with the pilot and 2 passengers on board to a VFR flight to Arnsberg-Menden Airfield which is located approximately 30 NM to the south-east. One of the passengers was seated in the right-hand seat next to the pilot and the other in the passenger seat behind the pilot. The radar recording of the air navigation service provider showed that the airplane climbed up to 2,200 ft AMSL. Ten minutes after take-off, the pilot established radio contact with Dortmund Tower with the request to cross Dortmund Airport control zone via the reporting point WHISKEY towards reporting point ECHO on his way to Arnsberg. At 1552:14 hrs, the tower controller answered: “[…] melden Sie WHISKEY und dann erwarten Sie Durchflug nach Arnsberg oder ECHO, wie Sie möchten, QNH eins null null eins (report WHISKEY and then expect cross flight to Arnsberg or ECHO, as you like, QNH one zero zero one)“. The pilot confirmed QNH and approach point. At 1555:22 hrs, the pilot reported having reached reporting point WHISKEY at 2,200 ft AMSL. The controller approved the flight through the control zone towards the south. The GPS and radar data showed that at 1556 hrs, the airplane turned tight towards 120° to a direct heading to Arnsberg. At 1559 hrs, as the airplane had left the control zone the controller issued the clearance to leave Tower frequency. At 1600 hrs, about 2.5 NM west of the destination aerodrome, the airplane turned left towards the east. About one minute later the airplane intersected the extended runway centre line of runway 23 at a distance of 0.7 NM from the threshold with an eastern heading. At the time, ground speed was approximately 150 kt. At 1601:39 hrs, the airplane turned left towards the final approach of runway 23. At 1602 hrs, about 1 NM from the threshold of runway 23 at about 1,500 ft AMSL, the airplane reached the extended runway centre line. The Flugleiter (A person required by German regulation at uncontrolled aerodromes to provide aerodrome information service to pilots.) stated that during final approach flaps and landing gear of the airplane had been extended. The approach looked normal. For a short time he had no longer observed the airplane because he had made some entries in the computer. His colleague had then addressed him and drew his attention to the speed of the airplane. The Flugleiter saw that the airplane had an upward large pitch angle, then plunged and disappeared from his sight. The airplane impacted the ground and the 3 occupants suffered severe injuries. The Flugleiter stated he had tried in vain to contact the pilot twice and then raised the alarm. His colleague and other first aiders had driven to the accident site immediately.

The Cessna 551 Citation II/SP corporate jet took off at 13:30 local time from Reichelsheim Airfield, Germany, for a training flight at Siegerland Airport. It was a training flight to acquire the type rating for the aircraft. The right pilot's seat was occupied by the pilot in command, who was deployed on this flight as a flight instructor. The student pilot, as co-pilot, sat on the left pilot seat and was the pilot flying. For the co-pilot it was the second flight day of his practical training program on the Cessna 551 Citation II/SP. The day before, he had already completed about three flying hours on the plane. At Siegerland Airport, three precision approaches to runway 31 were carried out with the help of the Instrument Landing System (ILS). After the third landing, the tower, due to the changed wind, turned the landing direction to runway 13. The cockpit crew therefore rolled the aircraft to the end of the runway, turned and took off at 14:34 from runway 13. This was followed by a left-hand circuit at an altitude of 3,500 ft AMSL. The approach to runway 13 took place under visual flight conditions. According to both pilots, the checklists were processed during the circuit and the aircraft was prepared for landing on runway 13. In the final approach, the landing configuration was then established and the landing checklist performed. The copilot reported that shortly before the landing the speed decreased, the aircraft flew too low and the approach angle had to be corrected. He pushed the engine thrust levers forward to the stop. The pilot in command supported this action by also pushing the engine thrust levers forward with his hand. However, according to the pilot in command, the remaining time to touch down on the runway was no longer sufficient for the engines to accelerate to maximum speed in order to deliver the corresponding thrust. He also described that the aircraft had been in the stall area at that time. However, he had not noticed a stall warning. At 14:42, with the landing gear extended, the aircraft touched down in the grass in front of the asphalt area of runway 13. The left main landing gear buckled and damaged the tank of the left wing. The right main landing gear also buckled, the tank on the right side remained undamaged. The kerosene escaping from the left wing ignited and a fire broke out. The aircraft burned and slipped along runway 13 on the folded landing gear, the underside of the airframe and the extended landing flaps until it came to a standstill after a distance of approx. 730 m from runway threshold 13. After the plane had come to a standstill on the runway, the copilot noticed flames on the left side of the plane. The pilot switched off both engines. Then both pilots left the plane via the emergency exit door on the right side. The pilots were not injured.