Wölfersheim mid-air collision
Privately owned Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six and Privately owned Robin DR400 · In the Wölfersheim mid-air collision, on 8 December 2012 two light aircraft collided near Wölfersheim, Hesse, and crashed
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13WA092
- 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
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- 0
- 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
- General aviation
- 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 · Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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-EUEU
- Operator
- Privately owned
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Stadtlohn-Vreden Airfield (EDLS)To Aschaffenburg Airfield (EDFC)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- En route
- 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Robin DR400
- Aircraft type
- Robin DR400
- 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-EHJP
- Operator
- Privately owned
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Not stated
- 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 Koblenz-Winningen Airfield (EDRK)To Reichelsheim Airfield (EDFB)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- En route
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: Wölfersheim, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
In the Wölfersheim mid-air collision, on 8 December 2012 two light aircraft collided near Wölfersheim, Hesse, and crashed. The accident is regarded as one of the most serious civil aviation accidents of recent years.
Sequence of events
The Piper PA-32 Saratoga had taken off at 15:05 with a family of five from Offenbach am Main, bound for Aschaffenburg Airfield. The Robin DR 400 Régent had taken off at 15:35 from Koblenz-Winningen Airfield to Reichelsheim Airfield. Both flights were conducted under visual flight rules (VFR). From 16:03:28 onwards, the two aircraft were on a collision course with each other; the Piper was flying on a heading of 160 degrees, the Robin 120 degrees; the distance between the light aircraft at the start of the convergence was 1.02 NM, and both were flying at an altitude of 3500 feet above sea level. The pilot of the Robin reported the impending landing to Reichelsheim Airfield by radio at 16:03:40. At around 16:04:07 – after 39 seconds of flight without a change of direction – the aircraft collided at an altitude of 3,500 feet and struck the ground about 600 metres apart. All occupants – four children aged between two and eight years and their two sets of parents – were fatally injured.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugzeugkollision bei Wölfersheim” (revision 269733759, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On December 8, 2012, about 1513 coordinated universal time, a Piper PA-32, German registration, D-EUEU, and a Robin Regent DR400, German registration D-EHJP, collided while on cross country flights near Melbach, Germany. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The pilot and 4 passengers onboard the Piper and the pilot and 2 passengers onboard the Robin were fatally injured. The Piper originated from Stadtlohn-Vreden, Germany, and the Robin originated from Reichelsheim, Germany, at undetermined times. The German investigators received reports that these two aircraft collided in midair near Melbach, Germany.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction and control of the German government. This report is for informational purposes only and contains only information released by or obtained from the German government or German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation. 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 factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugzeugkollision bei Wölfersheim
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 269733759 · 2026-08-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q17354304
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record CEN13WA092
- Event ID
- 20121210X91144
- Case number
- CEN13WA092
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugzeugkollision bei Wölfersheim" (page 8309948, revision 269733759), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case CEN13WA092 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record CEN13WA092
- Map position
- Wikipedia: place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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 CEN13WA092
- Operation
- operator given as a private owner in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Wölfersheim mid-air collision" and NTSB case CEN13WA092, 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.