La Thuile mid-air collision
Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil and SAN Jodel D.140 Mousquetaire · Mid-air collision; pilot errors
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19WA174
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 9
- Survivors
- 2
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 2
- 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
- Unknown
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Unknown
Aircraft 1 · Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter AS350
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Occupants
- 6
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft 2 · SAN Jodel D.140 Mousquetaire
- Aircraft type
- San Jodel D-140
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Occupants
- 3
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- Route
- From Megève Altiport (MVV)To not recorded
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The La Thuile mid-air collision is an air accident that occurred on 25 January 2019, in the Aosta Valley, in the municipality of La Thuile.
The accident occurred shortly before 16:00 at almost 3000 metres altitude.
The accident
The San Jodel was carrying 3 people, the pilot together with two students. The only survivor from the aeroplane was the French pilot, subsequently charged with aggravated culpable air disaster and aggravated multiple manslaughter, sentenced at first instance to 6 years and 8 months' imprisonment, reduced on appeal to 4 years and 6 months.
In the AS 350 B3 helicopter there were 6 people, of whom 5 died and one was seriously injured.
The French aeroplane departed from Megève, an altiport in Savoie. It was at 3000 metres altitude and a few tens of metres from the ground when it suddenly collided with the helicopter. According to the judgment convicting the pilot of the French aeroplane, the pilot crossed into Italian territory unlawfully and without notifying the aviation authorities, with the further intention of landing on the glacier. The investigation also fully exonerated the helicopter pilot.
Investigation and cause
The investigation
The investigation was carried out by the Agenzia nazionale per la sicurezza del volo. The final report, published in June 2021, states:
In addition, the ANSV indicated as contributing factors to the event:
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Italian Wikipedia article “Collisione aerea di La Thuile” (revision 150102673, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
The government of Italy has notified the NTSB of an accident involving a midair collision between a Eurocopter AS350-B3 helicopter and a Jodel D.140E airplane that occurred on January 25, 2019. The NTSB has appointed a U.S. Accredited Representative to assist the government of Italy's investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13.All investigative information will be released by the government of Italy.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Italian Wikipedia article: Collisione aerea di La Thuile
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150102673 · 2026-04-07 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q62978791
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ERA19WA174
- Event ID
- 20190520X01452
- Case number
- ERA19WA174
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- it Wikipedia article "Collisione aerea di La Thuile" (page 7799475, revision 150102673), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ERA19WA174 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia article: the date in its opening sentence (the infobox gives none to the day)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record ERA19WA174
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ERA19WA174
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "La Thuile mid-air collision" and NTSB case ERA19WA174, matched by the same aircraft maker and place and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.