Dominican Republic completes test flight of Leonardo AW169
The Dominican Republic Air Force has successfully flown one of the two AW169s that were recently delivered
The Fuerza Aérea de la República Dominicana (FARD; Dominican Republic Air Force) accepted delivery of two out of four Leonardo AW169s that have been ordered. These craft were originally destined for the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) but the deal fell through and so the craft were transferred to the FARD after a declaration of intent for cooperation in defense, security and crisis management with the UK on 16 March 2023.
The helicopters arrived at San Isidro on 23 March 2024 on a QEAF Boeing C-17A A7-MAM from Al Udeid, Qatar.
An initial group of 16 pilots have been trained to fly the helicopters by Leonardo, as well as several avionics engineers.
The first two AW169 helicopters received FARD serials 3078 and 3079, formerly QA328 (msn 69106) and QA329 (msn 69108), respectively.
The first test flight of the 3078 was successful, bound for Santiago de los Caballeros.
The aircraft are to be used for:
- combating drug trafficking
- monitoring illegal migration
- medical evacuations
- responding to natural disasters
- fighting forest fires
- search and rescue operations.
Conducting the flight was Test Pilot Jeison Cosh, with pilots Colonel Manuel Figuereo Mercedes and Colonel Luis Martínez Vilomar also onboard.
Recently, the North Macedonian government also ordered four AW169s.
Jon Adams
Jon is the Editor of AirMed&Rescue. He was previously Editor for Clinical Medicine and Future Healthcare Journal at the Royal College of Physicians before coming to AirMed&Rescue in November 2022. His favorite helicopter is the Army Air Corps Lynx that he saw his father fly while growing up on Army bases.