Factual Information
On 14 February 2010, at approximately 20:08 local time, a Cessna 550 B Citation Bravo departed from Prague, Czech Republic, on a positioning flight to Karlstad, Sweden. The aircraft was operated under instrument flight rules. The crew consisted of a female pilot-in-command and a male copilot; no passengers were on board. The flight was the pilot-in-command's second of the day, and the copilot had already completed two flights earlier.
Sequence of Events
After departure, the aircraft climbed normally. During the climb, the crew discussed performing a roll maneuver. At 20:15, air traffic control instructed the crew to climb to flight level 260 and level off at waypoint DEKOV. The crew acknowledged but continued their conversation about performing a roll. At 20:17, they briefly rolled left and right. At 20:18:36, ATC Munich instructed them to climb to flight level 330, which was acknowledged.
At 20:19:00, the aircraft leveled at flight level 270. Five seconds later, the nose pitched up to about 14° angle of attack, and the aircraft began a right roll. Within 4 seconds, it reached inverted flight, and after another 4 seconds, it rolled an additional 90°. During the maneuver, the pitch angle decreased to nearly -85°, and airspeed increased significantly. The aircraft struck the ground near Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna in a forested area of Saxon Switzerland, about 500 meters north of the Czech border.
Injuries and Damage
Both pilots sustained fatal injuries. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces. Additionally, there was damage to forest and terrain.
Cause and Contributing Factors
The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) concluded that the accident was caused by the crew's attempt to perform a roll maneuver that is not intended for commercial aviation. The crew lost spatial orientation and the ability to recover from the unusual attitude.
Contributing factors included: the pilots lacked training in aerobatic flight; the accident occurred at night, depriving the crew of visual references; the personal relationship between the two pilots led to a departure from professional cockpit behavior; and the aircraft was neither designed nor certified for aerobatics.