1996 Cessna 550 crash near Freilassing
Alp-Air Luftfahrt Verwaltungs-GmbH, lessor: Private Wings Cessna Citation II · In the crash of a Cessna 550 near Freilassing in the Upper Bavarian district of Berchtesgadener Land on 19 February 1996, ten people died
From Berlin Tempelhof Airport to Salzburg Airport
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 10 · 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
Cessna Citation II
- Aircraft type
- Cessna CITATION
- 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
- D-CASH
- Onboard fatalities
- 10
- Route
- From Berlin Tempelhof AirportTo Salzburg Airport
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
In the crash of a Cessna 550 near Freilassing in the Upper Bavarian district of Berchtesgadener Land on 19 February 1996, ten people died. It is one of the outstanding disaster and criminal cases in Upper Bavaria. The business aircraft crashed during its landing approach to the nearby Austrian Salzburg Airport.
Sequence of events
The Cessna 550 Citation II (built 1987) had taken off from Berlin Tempelhof Airport at 8:50 and was on its way to Salzburg. At 9:50 the pilots contacted the Salzburg control tower and received clearance for the ILS approach to runway 16 (today designated 15). 5.5 km before the runway the Cessna 550 stalled; the speed fell below the minimum speed for controllability of the aircraft and the Cessna rolled off over the left wing. The pilots were unable to regain control; the aircraft crashed into a forest near Freilassing 150 metres from the German–Austrian border and was destroyed by the almost vertical impact with the ground and the subsequent fire.
All ten occupants (eight passengers, two crew members) died.
Cause of the accident
The speed fell below the minimum approach speed, so that lift collapsed. In addition there was a failure in the electrical power supply, as a result of which the autopilot and the attitude indicator did not work.
At the time of the crash it was snowing; it is assumed that icing contributed to the cause of the failures.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Absturz einer Cessna 550 bei Freilassing 1996” (revision 259380526, 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
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Absturz einer Cessna 550 bei Freilassing 1996
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 259380526 · 2025-09-01 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q17353335
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Absturz einer Cessna 550 bei Freilassing 1996" (page 8315761, revision 259380526), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- 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)
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.