Citation Excel (C560XL)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control
Procedure; Environment - Non Weather Related
ANJLL4 arrival to LAX. We were 5 nm in trail of an A320 between ANJLL & CAANN at 19;000 feet. We began to encounter light choppy air vibrations for about 3-4 minutes. It had been smooth air until then. All at once; the plane yawed and rolled to the left about 70 degrees. The autopilot disengaged and the PIC/Pilot Flying grabbed the controls and hit hard right rudder and hard right ailerons. The plane continued to roll left and then suddenly began responding to the control input. I; the Pilot Not-Flying; called LA ATC and informed them of our situation. They responded appropriately with a lower altitude and heading away from the wake of the leading aircraft.There should be greater spacing from these large planes. With all the data there is no reason these types of circumstances should occur; yet they still do. We could have easily ended upside down and even worse. It seemed ATC was aware of and concerned with something due to speed and altitude changes issued to us. However; nothing was done or at least the bare minimum was done to mitigate this from happening yet it did happen. For the sake of safety; additional spacing should be required! This was easily preventable.
CE-560XL Captain reported a near upset occurred as a result of a wake turbulence encounter on arrival into LAX 5 miles in trail of an A320.