Airbus H135 / EC135

One of the most common air ambulance helicopters in the US and Europe, the EC135 (now sold as the H135) has six fatal US accidents since 2008 in our data, mostly air medical and rescue flights at night or in poor weather. Its score beats every single-engine helicopter we rate, and it sits just behind the H145, though the likely ranges of the two scores overlap.

What is the H135, and who flies it?

Eurocopter first flew the EC135 in 1994. It has two turbine engines, about seven seats and a shrouded tail rotor (Fenestron). The FAA register lists 359 in our count in 2026, up from 140 in 2008, which gives about 5.3 million US flights since 2008 in our estimate. Our records show air medical programmes (Air Methods, Med-Trans, Metro Aviation and REACH), a sheriff's office and a private owner.

How the score is worked out

We count fatal accidents in the United States since 2008, from the NTSB database. Flights come from the FAA aircraft register and the FAA General Aviation survey, at about 0.41 hours per flight, a flight being take-off to final landing, measured on ADS-B tracks. Accidents in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are outside the count; accidents off the US coast, the Gulf of Mexico included, count. Each type's share of the twin-engine class's flights follows its registered aircraft and how much that type flies, mostly from airframe hours in NTSB accident records and partly from hours per aircraft seen by ADS-B receivers from 2019 to 2022. For EC135s that is then matched to the FAA's own hours for the model (FAA Table MM.1, 2008 to 2021): they made about a third more flights per aircraft than the average twin. The method gives the detail.

Per flight, the EC135's own record is about a fifth below the twin-engine class average and about a quarter of the single-engine turbine average. With about 5.3 million flights, its own record carries most of the weight in its score, but confidence is low, because six accidents are few. Helicopters score far lower than airliners, because each flight carries much more risk than an airline flight; the helicopter ranking shows where it sits.

Six accidents, 16 deaths

Up to 28 October 2026, six accidents count. Three were air medical missions, two of them the flight back to base with the crew alone: Onalaska, Wisconsin, on 10 May 2008, and near Canton, Mississippi, on 10 March 2025 (three dead each). The Onalaska helicopter hit trees on a ridge at night in rain; the NTSB cited inadequate preflight planning, too little height and the lack of a terrain warning system. Near Canton, a crew member radioed that the controls were giving trouble before the helicopter came down in trees; no cause has been published.

The newest is off Avalon, California, on 30 September 2026. Seconds after a night take-off from Catalina Island, the helicopter descended into the sea. The pilot, the flight nurse and the patient died; the paramedic and a passenger survived. The NTSB has published a preliminary report without a cause.

The other three:

• 28 August 2023, Pompano Beach, Florida: a sheriff's rescue flight. The NTSB found an in-flight fire outside the engine firewalls, likely from the No. 1 engine overheating for reasons it could not determine. One of three on board died.
• 25 May 2017, near New Castle, Delaware: a solo instrument practice flight in cloud. The NTSB found loss of control on a missed approach, from spatial disorientation and task saturation.
• 14 February 2010, near Cave Creek, Arizona: a private flight, five dead. The NTSB found that the owner's young daughter, sitting on his lap, very likely pushed the collective down, and the abrupt recovery drove the main rotor into the tail.

By type: loss of control twice, flight into terrain once, fire once, and two causes not yet known.

Questions worth asking

• A patient rarely chooses the helicopter, but a family can ask the hospital which operator flies its programme and whether it is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems.
• If you charter one, ask whether the flight runs under Part 135 or Part 91, and what weather minimums apply at night.
• In a private helicopter, belt children into their own seat, away from the controls.
• Look up the N-number in the FAA registry and the NTSB database.

For the larger air ambulance twin from the same maker, see the Airbus H145.