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On October 19, 2023, shortly before 20:00 p.m., an Agusta Bell 212 helicopter of the Federal Army began to burn on the ground near Pramet/Feitzing in Upper Austria. The six occupants, including two pilots (44 and 28 years old, both from Linz-Land), a technician (35 years old, from Linz) and three air rescuers (54, 50 and 41 years old, from St. Veit an der Glan, Klagenfurt- Land and Klagenfurt) were able to leave the helicopter in time.
They were taken to the hospital. Five were able to leave the hospital yesterday. The air rescuer, who remained in the hospital for observation, was also able to leave the hospital today and is on the mend. All soldiers involved were offered psychological support.
The Aircraft Accident Commission is currently on site and is investigating the incident. She will prepare an interim report within the next few weeks. The final report will be submitted within 12 months. The task of the aircraft accident commission is to prevent future aircraft accidents or flight incidents and not to clarify responsibilities in the current case. An aircraft accident commission does not make assessments, but rather recommendations.
The removal of the crashed aircraft is currently being organized, but approval from the Aircraft Accident Commission is required. Since the crash site is close to a well and water protection area, soil contamination could make it necessary to excavate the affected area. This is still being clarified with the responsible authority.
The affected helicopter had an operating time of 6.277 hours before the night flight. The last maintenance on this aircraft took place between October 4th and 10th, 2023. The “Midlife Update” (MLU) was carried out on this aircraft from April 2015 to April 2016; according to the MLU, it has completed 830 flight hours. The MLU of the entire Agusta Bell fleet was carried out between 2012 and 2016.
The “Mildlife Update” for the AB-212 was carried out on all machines from 2013 to 2016 in Italy. The focus was on adapting the cockpit to modern display devices in order to comply with the state of the art and to ensure the safety and continued usability of the system. The goal is to increase situational awareness and thus flight safety while reducing the pilots' workload. The MLU extended the useful life of this helicopter by 25 years. This helicopter would have had a service life of up to 2041.
