Airbus H145 / EC145 / BK117

Three fatal accidents in the United States since 2008 count against the H145 family, and they have little in common: one began with an engine bearing failure, one with a rescuer falling from a hoist and one with a night flight into snow and freezing rain. All three were air ambulance or rescue flights.

What is the H145, and where do you see one?

The helicopter began as the BK117, built by MBB and Kawasaki, which first flew in 1979. Its C-2 successor was renamed EC145 and later H145. About 2,250 have been built. It has two turbine engines and about nine seats, and it is a common US air ambulance and rescue helicopter. The FAA register lists 249 in our count in 2026, up from 172 in 2008. The US Army flies a military version, the UH-72 Lakota, and one crashed near La Grulla, Texas, on 8 March 2024 (three of four died); it is a military flight, outside the NTSB database and outside our count, which covers civil flying only.

Reading a short record

Our helicopter scores use fatal accidents in the US since 2008, from the NTSB database, and US flights estimated from the FAA aircraft register and the FAA General Aviation survey: about 3.6 million for this family, at about 0.41 hours per flight from take-off to final landing, measured on ADS-B tracks. 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 H145s 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. If those estimates are off, so is our flight count. Helicopters score far lower than airliners, because each flight carries much more risk than an airline flight.

A 2010 crash off Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, with six deaths, is outside the count, as are all accidents in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Per flight, the H145's own record is about half the twin-engine class average and about two-thirds of the EC135's. With about 3.6 million flights, its own record carries most of the weight in its score, but confidence is low because three accidents are few. It comes first in our helicopter ranking, just ahead of the EC135, though the likely ranges of the two scores overlap, so the lead is small and uncertain. The AW139 and the Bell 212 and 412 have too few US flights to be ranked yet. The method and the helicopter ranking explain how.

The three accidents

Up to 28 October 2026, the three counted accidents killed eight people.

8 September 2017, Perquimans County, North Carolina. A Duke Life Flight air ambulance had a pilot, two nurses and a patient on board. Witnesses saw smoke trailing behind it, and its transmitted data ended at about 1,200 feet. The NTSB found that a rear bearing in the No. 2 engine failed and gave confusing cockpit indications, that the good No. 1 engine was shut down, and that the No. 2 then lost power too low for an autorotation, a landing on the freewheeling rotor. All four died.

27 April 2015, Barton Creek, Austin, Texas. During a night hoist rescue, a rescue specialist fell about 100 feet as he and the patient were reeled in. He died. The NTSB found no fault in the hoist, his equipment or the helicopter and concluded that he was very likely not attached to the hoist correctly. It counts because the death came from the flight, but it says little about the aircraft.

10 December 2012, near Compton, Illinois. Flying at night to pick up a patient, an Air Methods BK117 ran into snow and freezing rain; the pilot became spatially disoriented and lost control. The pilot, flight nurse and paramedic died.

By occurrence type that is one engine failure, one loss of control and one other.

What to ask an operator

• As a patient or family, ask the hospital which operator flies its programme and whether it holds accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems.
• If you charter or crew an H145, ask how the operator trains pilots for an engine failure and for engine warnings that disagree, the problem in the 2017 crash.
• Ask whether the operator flies with two pilots, or with an autopilot, at night and in cloud.
• Look up the N-number in the FAA registry and the NTSB database.

The older BK117 shares this record and flies under the ICAO code BK17. Three events in about 3.6 million flights show the family is not a known hazard, not that it is free of risk.