AW609 Civil Tiltrotor Program Likely Facing More Delays

The AW609 civil tiltrotor program could face new and substantial delays in the face of an interim accident report issued in late June by Italy’s civil aviation safety investigation authority, the ANSV, and a criminal manslaughter probe related to the October 30 in-flight break up and fatal crash of prototype AC2, N609AG, outside Tronzano, Vercellese.

In early May, Leonardo-Finmeccanica announced that AW609 prototype AC3 had completed restrained power-on tests and was being readied for shipment to the U.S. to join AC1, AC4 and the flight-test program based in Philadelphia. However, just days later, several Italian media outlets reported that Italian prosecutors had impounded that aircraft as part of their investigation. Leonardo has not yet responded to AIN’s inquiries about the current status of AC3.

The ANSV interim report confirms that N609AG was involved in high-speed testing when it crashed after apparently suffering an in-flight structural failure. Salvaged data from flight and video recorders, combined with telemetry broadcast from the aircraft, indicates that the aircraft was in a planned “extreme dive” at a speed of 293 kias when the pilot-in-command lost control because of suspected anomalies in the fly-by-wire flight control laws.