Time Air Flight 039C

Time Air Flight 039C (flight number: TIE039C) was an international flight of the Czech airline Time Air from Prague to Karlstad, operated on 14 February 2010. A serious aviation accident occurred on this flight near Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna in Saxony, resulting in the death of both pilots and the total loss of the Cessna 550B Citation Bravo involved.

Flight and accident sequence

The aircraft took off from runway 31 of Prague Airport. The first officer was the pilot flying. The flight was flown manually; neither of the two autopilots was engaged. After a right turn, the flight path led northwards from 20:12. The aircraft was climbing. During the climb, at 20:14:16, the captain (a woman) remarked that she had not flown at night for a long time. The first officer then asked her: "Have you ever flown a roll at night?" She replied, laughing: "Yes, I really have." At 20:15:00 the pilots received an instruction from air traffic control in Prague to climb to flight level 260 and to level off over the reporting point DEKOV. The pilots continued their conversation about flying rolls. In the period between 20:17:10 and 20:17:20 the aircraft rolled about its longitudinal axis, first to the left to a bank angle of 30° and immediately afterwards to the right to a bank angle of 20°, and then back to level.

At 20:18:36 the crew received an instruction from Munich to climb to flight level 330. This was acknowledged at 20:18:44. From 20:18:51 the following exchange took place between the cockpit crew:

-20:18:51 Captain: "Enough, is it enough?"

-20:18:53 Co-pilot: "For what?"

-20:18:54 Captain: "Enough."

-20:18:56 Captain: "The altitude."

-20:18:58 Co-pilot: "For what?"

-20:18:58 Captain: "For that."

-20:19:00 First officer: "It is enough."

At 20:19:00 the aircraft levelled off from flight level 270 into level flight. At 20:19:05 the aircraft's nose was pulled up to an angle of attack of about 14 degrees. At 20:19:09 the aircraft began to roll to the right about its longitudinal axis. Within about four seconds the Cessna was inverted and within a further four seconds rolled a further 90 degrees. At the same time the heading began to change to the right towards the east, subsequently through south and in the final part to a westerly direction. During the roll the angle of attack dropped to −85°, almost to a vertical dive. The speed increased sharply in the process. The aircraft crashed on the southeastern flank of the Großer Zschirnstein into the snow-covered steep slope area, killing both pilots on board. There was a post-impact fire as well as damage to forest and land from leaking aircraft fuel. The impact occurred at 20:19 only 500 metres beyond the German-Czech border, on the German side. The accident was not survivable.