2014 Olsberg mid-air collision
German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon and GFD Gesellschaft Fur Flugzieldarstellung Learjet 35A · Mid-air collision due to pilot error on the Learjet
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14WA321
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 3
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Eurofighter Typhoon
- Aircraft type
- Eurofighter TYPHOON
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 30+91
- Operator
- German Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 1
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Not stated
- Route
- From Nörvenich Air Base (ETNN)To Nörvenich Air Base
Aircraft 2 · Learjet 35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- D-CGFI
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Occupants
- 2
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Hohn Air Base, GermanyTo Hohn Air Base
- Aircraft age
- About 29 years (built 1985)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 23 June 2014, a German Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet and a Learjet 35 business jet participating in a military exercise collided mid-air over Olsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The Learjet subsequently crashed to the ground with the loss of both crew members on board. The Typhoon was damaged but managed to land safely.
Collision
The accident happened at 14:38 CEST (12:38 UTC). Two Eurofighter Typhoons were on exercise with the Learjet in the Elpe-Olsberg area. The Learjet was simulating a civilian airliner that had been hijacked and had broken off radio contact with Air Traffic Control, while the Typhoons were simulating a military response to such a scenario. The lead Typhoon intercepted the Learjet, and as the latter turned to follow it, the two aircraft collided.
The Learjet crashed about 100 m from houses in Olsberg, killing both crew members. The Typhoon aircraft was severely damaged, but was able to land safely at Nörvenich Air Base, near Cologne. The second Typhoon landed at Cologne Bonn Airport.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2014 Olsberg mid-air collision” (revision 1339311662, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On June 23, 2014, at 1322 coordinated universal time, a Learjet 35A, German registered D-CGFI, was destroyed during a midair collision near Olsberg, Germany. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The pilot and one crew member were fatally injured.
The German investigators received reports that the Learjet collided with a German Air Force Eurofighter jet.
The accident investigation is under the jurisdiction and control of the German government. This report is for information purposes only and contains only information released by or obtained from the German government or German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation/Bundesstelle fuer Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU). Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation Bundesstelle fuer Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU) Hermann-Blenk Strasse 16 38108 Braunschweig Germany
Probable cause
The accident investigation is under the jurisdiction and control of the German government. This report is for information purposes only and contains only information released by or obtained from the German government or German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation/Bundesstelle fuer Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU). Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation Bundesstelle fuer Flugunfalluntersuchung (BFU) Hermann-Blenk Strasse 16 38108 Braunschweig Germany
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2014 Olsberg mid-air collision
- Revision
- 1339311662 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q17282241
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record CEN14WA321
- Event ID
- 20140626X01932
- Case number
- CEN14WA321
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2014 Olsberg mid-air collision" (page 43127740, revision 1339311662); merged with NTSB case CEN14WA321 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record CEN14WA321
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2014 Olsberg mid-air collision" and NTSB case CEN14WA321, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.