An Armed Forces of Malta helicopter experienced an incident during a take-off procedure on Sunday morning.

“This morning, around 9:00am, whilst at Armed Forces of Malta’s Air Wing, an Alouette AS9211 helicopter experienced an incident during takeoff preparations with damage sustained to the control surfaces,” the AFM said in a short statement.

“No injuries were reported among the aircrew. An investigation has been launched to determine the causes leading to this incident,” it continued.

A video of the incident showed the helicopter swinging around sharply as it took off and then landing heavily, fortunately on its wheels.

It is the second incident involving an AFM Alouette helicopter this year, with the first being last March when one made a crash landing in a field in Qrendi when a routine emergency landing exercise went wrong.

The Alouette helicopters have been patrolling Malta’s skies since 1979 having previously been part of a Libyan military mission based in the country.  They were taken out of service a year later and kept in storage for a decade due to a political dispute with Libya.

The helicopters were brought out of storage and handed to the government after the matter was resolved in the early 1990s, and sent to France for an overhaul which allowed them to be put back in service.

Two more Alouette were acquired from the Royal Netherlands Air Force in 1996, and some older helicopters were retired and used for spares.  The AFM Air Wing recently purchased Augusta Westland helicopters to add to its fleet.

The PN said on Monday that while it was thankful that nobody was injured, the government should be investing in new aircraft for the AFM’s air wing, noting that Robert Abela had made it clear during the MEP election campaign that his government would not be investing in the AFM.