Incident A109E Power SP-HXA, 20-11-2009

[frank kramer]

According to a photo on Airliners.net, A.109E Power SP-HXA of the Polish Air Rescue Service suffered a serious incident at Warsaw on November 20, 2009. Its tail has come off and the main rotors are damaged and/or detached. Heavy landing?

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Lotnicze ... 1612487/M/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jack]

Agusta A109E c/n11630 SP-HXA Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe - Polish Medical Air Rescue. DBR in a crash at Warsaw-Bermowo on 20 november 2009.
http://lukasz.eu.org/zdjecia/agusta.jpg

The A109E was in an annual check ride for one of the experienced pilots with
check examiner/instructor on board.

After landing and starting the shut down procedures the helicopter
"started to shake violently", according to witness, rotor blades hit and
cut of the tail.

The crew was taken to hospital for examination. One of the pilots
has been already released, the other with suspected spinal injury
still remains hospitalized.

http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1629677,0,1,wypa ... omosc.html

[Pete]

It is a sheer stroke of luck that the helicopter remained in an upright position instead of turning en tumbling like you would expect in this situation.

Regards Pete
(sorry to see a nice bird written off. )