Leonardo AW109 / Agusta A109

Every counted fatal AW109 accident in the United States since 2008 began the same way: a flight into cloud, fog or rain. Up to 28 October 2026, four count toward its score, with eight deaths, in about 1.2 million US flights. Three of the four happened at night, and none of the NTSB summaries points to a fault in the helicopter.

What is the AW109, and who flies it?

Agusta flew the first A109 in 1971 and delivered it from 1976. It is a fast, sleek twin, with two turbines, a four-blade main rotor and retractable wheels on most versions; the newer AW109 Trekker sits on skids. About 1,600 have been built. Leonardo markets the Trekker for air ambulance, search and rescue and police work, and that is what most US AW109s do, along with corporate and private flights between heliports. The FAA register held about 120 in 2026, much as in 2008.

How the score is built

We count fatal accidents in the United States since 2008, from the NTSB database, against US flights estimated from the FAA aircraft register and the FAA General Aviation survey, split between types by how much each type flies, mostly from airframe hours in NTSB accident records and partly from hours per aircraft seen by ADS-B receivers (OpenSky, 2019 to 2022), then matched to the FAA's own hours for the model (FAA Table MM.1, 2008 to 2021). The average US AW109 flies about 40% less than the average twin.

With four accidents, the likely range is wide and confidence is low; the type's own record and the class record both carry weight. The AW109 shares its place with the Bell 429 and the AS355, a little behind the Sikorsky S-76 and the H130 and further behind the Airbus H145 and H135, though the likely ranges overlap. Its stablemate the AW139, a larger twin, has no counted fatal US accident. See our method and the helicopter ranking.

The four accidents

All four were work, public-use and private flights: two air ambulance, one police and one corporate. By occurrence type, three were loss of control in flight and one a flight into terrain.

9 June 2009, near Santa Fe, New Mexico. On a night search and rescue mission, a New Mexico State Police A109E took off from a mountain site into dark, windy cloud and hit terrain. The pilot and the hiker being rescued died. The NTSB faulted the decision to take off and the agency's safety culture.

17 July 2014, near Newkirk, New Mexico. Positioning at night to collect a patient, a TriState CareFlight A109E flew into low cloud, lost control and hit a mesa. The pilot, flight nurse and paramedic died; the NTSB cited inadvertent flight into cloud.

10 June 2019, Manhattan, New York. The pilot of a corporate A109E, who had no instrument rating, left the East 34th Street heliport in rain and low cloud, became disoriented and hit the roof of a 54-story tower. He was alone and died.

27 June 2019, Brainerd, Minnesota. Returning after a patient flight, a North Memorial air ambulance A109S lost sight of the runway in night fog below the decision height. In the go-around the pilot lost control and it hit the ground. The pilot and flight nurse died; the paramedic survived.

The common thread is weather and the decision to fly in it. Two pilots or an autopilot, and training for an unplanned entry into cloud, are the usual defences; ask whether your operator has them.

What to ask an operator

• As a patient or family, ask the hospital which operator flies its programme, whether its pilots fly under instrument rules at night, and whether it holds accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems.
• For a charter, ask whether the pilot is instrument-rated and current, what the weather minimums are, and who can cancel the flight.
• Look up the N-number in the FAA registry and the NTSB CAROL database.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show A109. Look for the long, pointed nose, slim tail boom and wheels that fold away; the AW139 is a much larger twin with a bigger cabin.