Armscor, via its Defence Disposal Services (DDS), plans to dispose of the remains of an Agusta A109 light utility helicopter that crashed in 2016, by way of a contract issued this month (March).
The 87 Helicopter Flying School aircraft, tail number 4013, crashed while on a night training flight in the vicinity of Clocolan in the Free State province on the Lesotho border on 7 November 2016. One occupant was seriously injured while two others sustained moderate injuries.
The wreckage, according to Armscor contract EDSS/2024/150, is at Air Force Base (AFB) Bloemspruit, home to 16 Squadron and its Rooivalk combat support helicopters. The contract, issued on 5 March with a closing date of 11 April, gives no indication of damage caused by either impact or fire nor is there provision for inspection. The tender notice says disposal is of a “burned out wreck”. Email inquiries can be addressed to [email protected].
The SA Air Force (SAAF) acquired 30 A109 helicopters from the then Italian manufacturer Agusta, now part of the Leonardo group, in the late 1990s to replace the Alouette fleet as part of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package (SDPP).
The A109 fleet has suffered a relatively high loss rate in SAAF service. defenceWeb knows of more than half a dozen involved in crashes of varying levels ranging from hard landings to tail rotor failure.
On 12 May 2009, an A109 (4022) crashed into Woodstock Dam, near Bergville in Kwazulu-Natal. All three crewmembers on board died (Lieutenant Simon Baloyi, Flight Sergeant Moné Zuidmeer, and Captain Bongani Mdluli). The aircraft was in formation with two other A109s en route from Swartkop to Dragon Peak Park in the Bergville area to take part in a scheduled weeklong mountain training exercise. The formation was in nap-of-the-earth flight at the time, and the crash was judged to be caused by pilot error.
Another two helicopters were damaged in November and December 2010, but with no loss of life. An A109 (4024) was badly damaged in a hard landing near Potchefstroom in the Northwest Province on 24 November 2010. The crew were not seriously injured. On 15 December 2010, an A109 (4021) made a crash landing near Ballito on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast while assisting the police and Business Against Crime. Two crew suffered light injuries, while another sustained a broken back and pelvis. The aircraft was seriously damaged.
Following the December crash, all the A109s were grounded, pending inspection. The 2010 crashes were determined by the SAAF to be due to tail rotor failure and a broken swash plate control rod, but all mechanical problems were reportedly solved by 2012.
However, further crashes claimed more airframes. On 30 March 2013, an A109 (4018) on an anti-poaching operation in the Kruger National Park crashed at night, killing all five on board, including the flight crew. Pilot error was judged to be the cause of the accident, as SAAF investigators found that the flight crew (Captain Phil Chabalala and flight engineer Sergeant Gene Ruiters) were not experienced enough to undertake a low-level night flight with passengers. The passengers were Captain Jakes van Rensburg and Sergeant Paulus Ndishishi of 5 Special Forces Regiment and medical orderly Lance corporal Bheki Petros Cele.
An A109 was lightly damaged on 5 February 2014 when a student pilot attempted to land with the undercarriage still up. Although the landing was aborted, the aircraft suffered minor damage to its belly.
The most recent SAAF A109 crash came on 18 April 2019 when 4006 crashed near the R101 next to the Swartkop Golf Estate near Air Force Base Swartkop (now SAAF Mobile Deployment Wing) after a technical malfunction. Both occupants were seriously injured.
Military aviation authority Dean Wingrin told defenceWeb he was not aware of the current status of crashed A109s. “I have no information as to whether repairs to airworthy status were done or if the aircraft were written off,” he said.
At least three badly damaged A109s (including 4021) were in 2023 seen in a hangar at SAAF Mobile Deployment Wing. Judging by the layer of dust on them, the aircraft had been standing for years.
In SAAF service, it has been reported that the A109 can neither carry operational loads in high heat conditions nor fly in strong wind. Hundreds of kilograms of extra equipment was added to SAAF A109s, limiting hot and high performance.
According to the SAAF, typical missions for the A109 includes training, search and rescue, rope extraction & rappelling, trooping, medical evacuation (casevac), cargo transport, border patrol, peacekeeping, communications and urban operations.
