Flight International - November 10, 2015

THIS WEEK

fiightglobal.com 10-16 November 2015 | Flight International | 9

Airbus sets rate

expectations for

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THIS WEEK P

Reaper upgrade will put Italian air force on target

UNMANNED SYSTEMS BETH STEVENSON LONDON

I

taly may become the first coun-
try to benefit from a recently-
relaxed US government un-
manned air vehicle export
restriction, as it receives authori-
sation for a potential deal to arm
its air force’s fleet of General
Atomics Aeronautical Systems
MQ-9 Reapers.
The US Defense Security Coop-
eration Agency on 3 November
said the state department has ap-
proved a potential deal covering
weapons integration on Rome’s
six Reapers.
This follows the February lift-
ing of export restrictions covering
the sale of armed variants of the
MQ-9, with all non-US militaries

• with the exception of the UK
  Royal Air Force – limited to the
  surveillance-only aircraft.
  In a deal worth $130 million,
  Italy has requested 156 Lockheed
  Martin AGM-114R2 Hellfire II
  missiles, eight training missiles,
  30 GBU-12 laser-guided bombs,

30 GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack

Munitions (JDAM), 30 GBU-

laser-guided bombs, 30 GBU-

laser JDAMs, plus installation

kits, dummy missiles and spares.

Rome cites the potential for in-

creased contribution to NATO

coalition operations, improved

operational flexibility, and en-

hanced survivability for Italian

forces as reasons for its request.

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain is

also progressing with its MQ-9 ac-

quisition, which was authorised

by the USA on 6 October. Its cabi-

net agreed on 30 October to modi-

fy the budget to allow for the pur-

chase of four Block 5 Reapers, two

ground control stations, and sen-

sor and communication equip-

ment with a total value of €

million ($175 million).

A formal announcement has

yet to made, and neither the US

state department nor the manu-

facturer were available to com-

ment on the Spanish award. ■

NATO

Rome is seeking to integrate Hellfire missiles with its six MQ-9s

I

nvestigations have begun into

a fatal accident involving an

AgustaWestland AW609 tiltrotor

test aircraft which crashed in

northern Italy on 30 October,

killing its two pilots.

The Italian air accident inves-

tigation agency ANSV says the

crash site was located in the

province of Vercelli, with local

media reports suggesting that the

tiltrotor came down near the

town of Santhià, around 30

miles (48km) from Agusta-

Westland’s Cascina Costa

headquarters and nearby

Vergiate production facility.

ANSV says the aircraft, which

was destroyed in the crash, bore

the registration N609AG, the

second flight-test prototype.

This was built in 2003 and first

flown in 2006.

Flight-tracking website

Flightradar24 suggests that the

tiltrotor departed from Milan’s

Malpensa airport – which is ad-

jacent to Cascina Costa – at

around 09:30 UTC.

Certification of the AW609,

the world’s first civil tiltrotor,

was scheduled for 2017. ■

INCIDENT

DOMINIC PERRY LONDON

Crash of AW

prototype leaves

both pilots dead

S

abotage has gained credibility
a possible reason for the
destruction of an Airbus A321 in
Sinai, after the UK government
said the jet could have been the
target of a deliberate attack.
In an unusual step, which ap-
peared to pre-empt the Egyptian-
led inquiry into the 31 October
crash, the UK’s foreign office pub-
licised its concerns there was a
“significant” possibility – based
on “a range of sources” – that an
explosive device had been deto-
nated on board the aircraft.
Despite the risk of a diplomatic
row – particularly since Egyptian
president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had
coincidentally been scheduled to
visit the UK – the government for-
mally warned against air travel to
Sharm el-Sheikh, prompting sev-
eral UK airlines, as well as
Germany’s Lufthansa, to suspend
services on the route.
Investigators had yet to analyse
flight-recorder data from the
MetroJet A321 (EI-ETJ), which
had been 23min into flight
7K9268 to St Petersburg when air
traffic controllers lost contact.
The crash site encompasses
several discrete wreckage areas,

CRASH DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON

UK suspects A321 bombing

British government says possibility Russian airliner was deliberately attacked is “significant”

with the burned-out forward fu-

selage and wings notably sepa-

rate from the empennage and the

A321’s engines. None of the 224

occupants survived.

Russia’s transport ministry says

the search has expanded from an

initial 8km-by-4km region to an

area of 40km².

Both recorders have been re-

covered from the wreckage.

Flight-data recorder information

has been obtained but the con-

tents of the damaged cockpit-

voice recorder will require addi-

tional work to retrieve.

Sinai airspace is listed in the

ICAO conflict-zone repository –

set up after the shoot-down of Ma-

laysia Airlines flight MH17 – as a

potential threat to civil aviation,

and trans-Sinai routes have been

mainly flown by Russian and

Middle Eastern carriers.

Soon after confirmation that

the A321 had crashed, Egyptian

authorities requested that air traf-

fic avoid a specific entry way-

point, identified as PASOS, to

northern Sinai airspace, and tran-

sit the region via other routes.

Despite the UK restriction,

Egypt’s civil aviation minister,

Hossam Kamal, insists its air-

ports are safe. The UK hypothesis

was “not based on facts”, he says,

and adds that the investigation

team probing the crash had not

found “any evidence or data” to

support the case for sabotage. ■

Xinhua/Rex Shutterstock

Investigators are combing a 40km² area for the jet’s wreckage