Leonardo AW139

No fatal AW139 accident in the United States since 2008 appears in our data. That is a good sign, but the type has only about 1.1 million estimated US flights, too few for us to rank it yet, and its fatal accidents abroad do not count.

What is the AW139, and who flies it?

The AW139 is a twin-turbine helicopter from AgustaWestland, now Leonardo, first flown in 2001 and built in large numbers since (about 1,250). With about 14 seats it is, with the Bell 412, the largest of the twins we score. Operators use it for offshore oil and gas crews, including in the Gulf of Mexico, air ambulance work, search and rescue and executive transport. The FAA register lists 103 in our count in 2026, up from 27 in 2008. We estimate 1.1 million US flights since 2008.

What goes into the score

The record is fatal US accidents since 2008, from the NTSB database. Flights come from the FAA aircraft register and the FAA General Aviation survey, at about 0.51 hours per flight from take-off to final landing, measured on ADS-B tracks. Accidents off the US coast, the Gulf of Mexico included, count; accidents in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and accidents of helicopters on foreign registers, are left out. 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 AW139s that is then matched to the FAA's own hours for the model (FAA Table MM.1, 2008 to 2021): they flew a little more per aircraft than the average twin, but a small fleet makes that estimate rough.

With no counted event and few flights, the class average still carries more than a third of the weight in its score, and the likely range of that score is very wide. A type with under 3 million flights and at most one counted fatal accident is not ranked yet, so the AW139 is listed after the ranked helicopters, not at the top. Confidence is low. Like all helicopters, it scores far below airliners, because each flight carries much more risk than an airline flight. The method and the helicopter ranking set out the detail.

What does the zero mean, and what does it not?

The eight twin-engine types we rate, the AW139 included, have 24 counted fatal accidents between them on about 15.9 million flights. At the rate of the other seven, 1.1 million AW139 flights would have produced about two. Zero would still happen by chance roughly one time in six, so it hints that the type does better than its class but does not prove it. The H145, with three counted accidents on about three times as many flights, comes first in the ranking, just ahead of the H135, and its record says more than the AW139's zero.

The zero does not mean the AW139 cannot crash. Our data holds fatal accidents only, and it does not show that all AW139 flying is alike: an offshore crew change is a different job from a VIP shuttle or a night rescue.

What happened elsewhere?

ASN lists 14 fatal AW139 records worldwide from 2002 to 2026, military and test flights included; none counts here. Four civil cases:

• 19 August 2011, off Brazil. Four died offshore after the crew declared a hydraulic emergency; the wreckage showed a tail rotor blade failure.
• 13 March 2014, Gillingham, Norfolk. Four died when an executive flight took off from a private site at night in dense fog. The AAIB said the evidence suggests the crew may have had a somatogravic illusion, a false sense of climbing while accelerating with no outside view.
• 24 January 2017, Campo Felice, Italy. An air ambulance collecting an injured skier crashed into a mountain after entering cloud. Italian investigators cited fast-worsening visibility, the decision to continue and limited instrument training. Six died.
• 4 July 2019, Bahamas. A US-registered AW139 on a private flight hit the sea at night about a minute after take-off. The NTSB found spatial disorientation after a take-off over dark water. Seven died. The crash happened outside the United States, so it does not count here, although the helicopter was on the US register.

The latest is at Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia, on 28 June 2026: 14 died on approach, at the end of a round trip to an offshore installation. No cause has been published.

Before you board

• For an offshore or charter seat, ask whether the operator flies two pilots and uses instrument procedures at night and in cloud.
• Ask the weather limits for departures from platforms, private sites and over dark water, and look up the N-number in the FAA registry.
• A zero on fewer than 2 million flights is a reason to look closely at the operator, not to relax.