Rega – Swiss Air Ambulance – have disposed of their last three Agusta A109K2 helicopters.  This leaves the fleet consisting of 11 AgustaWestland AW109SP DaVinci and 6 Eurocopter EC145 helicopters.

Rega had a total of 16 A109K2 helicopters, delivered between 1992 and 1995.  Following the introduction of both of the current types, the 109K2 has been gradually disposed of over the last nine years – most notably including eight to Air Transport Europe in the Slovak Republic.  Three were lost in accidents in 1993 and 1998, and one donated to the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne.

The A109K2 – a “hot and high” variant of the popular Italian twin-engined helicopter – turned out not to be a particularly successful model, and only 38 were built.  Rega was the launch customer, taking the first 15 off the production line – and a 16th as a replacement for HB-XWE which was lost in an accident in 1993.

The remaining three – registrations HB-XWB, HB-XWN and HB-XWP – have been delivered to AgustaWestland in Italy as part of a trade-in agreement, and were cancelled from the Swiss aircraft register yesterday.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com