CHI03FA060 · Agusta A109C
Air Angels Agusta A109C · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Dupage Airport (DPA) to Dupage Airport (DPA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03FA060
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Agusta A109C
- Aircraft type
- Agusta A109
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N109MX
- Operator
- Air Angels
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dupage Airport (DPA), West Chicago, ILTo Dupage Airport (DPA), West Chicago, IL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Descent, excessive
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter was destroyed when it impacted terrain about 2.0 nautical miles (nm) south of the departure airport during a positioning flight. Night marginal visual flight rules (MVFR) conditions prevailed with reduced visibilities and low clouds. After refueling the helicopter, the pilot requested to depart to the south in order to "status check a couple pieces of equipment" and then return to the heliplex located on the southeast perimeter of the airport. Aircraft radar track data showed the helicopter traveling south about 1.7 nm before turning to the south-southwest. While traveling to the south, the helicopter climbed to about 500 feet above ground level (agl) while accelerating from 95 knots to about 125 knots airspeed. The helicopter then entered an 18 second period where the climb rate increased from 500 feet/min to 2,000 feet/min and the helicopter reached a maximum altitude of about 1,000 feet agl. The helicopter decelerated from 125 to 100 knots airspeed during this climb. Based on the last two radar returns, the helicopter descended about 200 feet which resulted in a 1,350 feet/min descent rate. Further examination of the data showed the helicopter decelerating from 85 to 35 knots airspeed during the descent. The last radar return was at 800 feet agl and 425 feet east of the initial ground impact. The pilot was appropriately certificated to fly the helicopter and was employed as a pilot for an on-demand air ambulance service. The pilot was working his final shift as an employee with the company when the accident occurred. All primary airframe structural components, flight control systems, rotor systems, transmissions, and powerplant components were recovered at the accident site. Inspection of the recovered components did not exhibit any evidence of pre-impact malfunction. A review of the daily usage logs for the helicopter failed to reveal any unresolved maintenance discrepancies. The pilot who flew the helicopter prior to the accident flight did not report any malfunctions with the helicopter. A fuel sample was obtained from the source used to service the helicopter prior to the accident flight. The fuel sample was tested and met or exceeded the specifications for Aviation Turbine Fuel (Jet-A).
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the helicopter while maneuvering, resulting in the excessive descent rate and impact with terrain. Factors to the accident included the dark night, low ceiling and reduced visibility at the time of the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03FA060
- Event ID
- 20030204X00160
- Case number
- CHI03FA060
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-01-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1bd139fb749327b30dea2b8618578ef022c8a0c8e979e45e308782672b0da76c; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:29:20.457Z.