Pietro Venanzi

Pietro Venanzi, (Velletri, 1962 - Santhià 2015) was the chief test pilot of the AW609 tiltrotor and worked in Agusta Westland since 1999.

He had previously served in the Air Force. Released from the Pozzuoli Air Force Academy in 1986, with the Centauro IV course, he flew for the Italian Air Force until 1999, the year in which he joined the Agusta Westland industrial group as an experimental pilot.

In addition to having extensive flying experience, Venanzi was awarded the bronze medal for military valor and received in the United States of America, in 2014, the "Iven Kicheloe" award for experimental pilots, precisely for his work with the AW609 program.

While they were flying over the skies of Santhià, a breakdown, perhaps an explosion, made the area unmanageable. The last desperate attempt to land in emergency, far from the houses, in an agricultural field; they probably could have saved themselves by parachuting, but they decided to take the aircraft away from the houses, making people safe.