Hello!
Can some experienced bizjet driver shed some light on the events, as I don´t know about Citation SOPs ?
I think you can best understand what went on, when you read the safety recommendations issued by the BFU on pages 45 and 46. A short translation:
11/2012: Until recommendations 12/2012, 13/2012 and 14/2012 have been put in place, VFR night approaches for high performance aircraft to Egelsbach shall be suspended.
12/2012: The visual approach procedures to and from Egelsbach shall be revised. The description shall be simple, easily understandable and free of contradictions.
13/2012: The definition of High Performance Aircraft (HPA) with relation to Egelsbach shall be supplemented by the speed term Vref. It shall be guaranteed that HPA aircraft can fly procedures and traffic patterns safely with their relative Vref.
14/2012: From the visual approach charts of Egelsbach it shall be evident that due to the obstacle situation the final approach must to be flown at an angle of 4.4 degrees. The obstacles shall be clearly marked on the chart.
I do not know about any „Citation SOPs“ (although I fly Citations myself, but not this model). We fly according to our company SOPs. Therefore I do not know whether their high approach speed (285kt initially - the AIP entry for Egelsbach gives a maximum approach speed of 160kt), their late configuration and their excessive descent rate on final approach (> 2500ft/min) was in accordance with _their_ standard way of operating this aeroplane or not. I also do not know why they entered a different waypoint (ECHO) into their FMS when instructed to follow the published HPA approach via Yankee One and Yankee 2 (they read back this instruction!). Not that it matters much, both routes cross the same ridge of obstacles.
So as usual we will have to wait for the final report.