I know quite a few guys who fly for NetJets Europe and I can assure you, that they really don’t do illegal things. Absolutely never. If they can’t fly to Egelsbach legally, they don’t fly there. Never. Really!
Agree. A good friend of mine is a captain with them, these guys really do it by the book. Period.
Even in the Meridian the EGPWS does this. You really cannot miss these alerts.
Ok… Not meant to suggest Netjets specifically break the German rules, but I am surprised that they bought into a VFR airport, when the wx is obviously so often sub VFR. Were they planning to get an IAP installed and, if so, why have they not been successful?
The discussion about an IAP at EDFE has been going on for at least twenty yeas, with lots of controversy. The fact is that an IAP (incl. its missed approach) would compromise operations at Frankfurt (EDDF). Not really very much, but even a little bit is too much for Frankfurt to tolerate. Things have become even more complicated in recent years, so it will never come. GA against CAT. No chance.
It really speaks volumes about general aviation in Germany that EDFE doesn’t have an IAP … I am sure it could be designed in a way that operations at EDDF would not be compromised at all … (whoever says that shoud have a look at the L.A. airspace and check what’s possible …)
Yes, but again, it has absolutely nothing to with this accident. Due to terrain and obstructions EDFE, a (hypothetical) GPS approach would have rather high minimums (MDA-wise and visibility-wise).
At Trier, they were apparrently well below CAT1 conditions.
Two totally different things, really.
Yes, of course!
What the guys in Trier did is nothing short of suicide. I wonder why somebody would do such a stupid thing like to descend INTO the fog …
PIC of that plane was a 55 year old guy from Bremen. I remember I met this guy with his Citation during refueling in ELLX 2 month ago. We had a small talk. RIP
Newer press articles identify the German PIC as president of the Aeroclub Leverkusen (Bayer), a commercial pilot with main residence in London, doing business flights with the Citation all over Europe.
As I have pointed out elsewhere, it may in fact be possible to see the airfield from overhead or from a high sight angle with fog in a valley. It is only when you descend into the fog that you lose FORWARD visibility. The German posters on here will probably know the area better than I, but local airports were reporting CAVOK at the time of arrival, with fog lingering in the valleys. I don’t think this is necessarily as clear-cut and obvious as some have suggested.
Losing visual references below DA requires seriously sharp and rapid action and is a very unpleasant feeling indeed.
