Robinson R66

Robinson built the R66 for buyers who wanted a turbine without leaving the brand: five seats, a Rolls-Royce RR300 engine and the same two-blade rotor as the R22 and R44. Up to 28 October 2026, 12 fatal US accidents count toward its score, with 29 deaths. Per flight, that is the lowest place among the helicopters we rank, a little behind the MD 500 and behind the piston R44 and the R22, and clearly behind the Airbus H125.

What kind of helicopter is the R66?

It first flew in 2007 and entered service in 2010, and Robinson has built about 1,600. The US register grew to about 370 by 2026 in our count. The pilot and one passenger sit in front, three passengers behind. Owners fly it privately, and charter firms, crop sprayers, police and TV news crews use it too: Robinson sells police and news versions.

The turbine does away with carburettor ice, which shows up in the R22's record, and none of the published findings for the R66 blames the engine. One feature of the rotor needs care. Like the R22 and R44, it is hinged in the middle and can strike its mast in low-G flight or hard turbulence. The FAA's special Robinson training rule, SFAR 73, names only the R22 and R44, but the same lessons apply.

A short record

Of the 12, 9 were private and other flights, 2 charter or air taxi flights and 1 a positioning flight. Four ended in an in-flight breakup after the rotor struck the mast, the tail or the airframe:

• near Philip, South Dakota, on 1 October 2011, where fire damage kept the NTSB from finding why the mast bumped;
• near Wikieup, Arizona, on 23 June 2016, where turbulence from updrafts or dust devils caused mast bumping, and both pilots died;
• at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, on 9 January 2020, after a severe roll at night that the pilot did not stop, for reasons the NTSB could not determine;
• near Colusa, California, on 1 August 2021, after an abrupt control input at 50 to 100 ft; four died.

Night is the other thread. Near Noxen, Pennsylvania, on 27 July 2013, a pilot flying by sight went into cloud at night over dark woods; he and four passengers died. Both charter or air taxi flights crashed at night in Georgia: near Monticello on 15 September 2021, in rain over unlit forest (three dead), and near Dawsonville on 29 May 2026, with storms around (two dead, one survivor; the NTSB has not yet published a cause).

Four crashes since June 2025 have no published cause, including Ekalaka, Montana, on 22 October 2025, where four died after something came off the helicopter in flight.

How we score it, and its limits

We count fatal accidents in the United States since 2008, from the NTSB database. Accidents off the US coast, the Gulf of Mexico included, count; accidents in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are left out. Flights come from the FAA register and General Aviation survey: about 0.5 million since the first ones were registered in 2010, a flight being take-off to final landing, at about 0.79 hours each. That is few, so the record of the other single-turbine helicopters carries a little more weight in the score than the R66's own. Each type's share of its 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, then matched to the FAA's own hours for the model (FAA Table MM.1, 2008 to 2021): R66s flew about a third as many flights per aircraft as the average single-turbine helicopter, many of which do busy air ambulance and tour work. If those estimates are off, so is our flight count. Helicopters score far lower than airliners.

Before you charter one

1. Ask for the operator's Part 135 certificate and check it with the FAA; look up the N-number in the NTSB CAROL database.
2. Ask whether the return leg will be flown after dark and what weather cancels it. Be ready to stay the night.
3. Give your real weight and your bags' weight.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show R66. It looks like a larger R44 with an extra rear seat. Compare it with the Robinson R44 and all types in the helicopter ranking.