Airbus Helicopters H225

Updated: October 2026 – A tall, angular helicopter with five long rotor blades, wheels and a cabin as big as a minibus thunders low over the landscape: you may well have just seen an Airbus Helicopters H225. Civilly it was long called the EC225 Super Puma, militarily it is known as the H225M or EC725 Caracal. Hardly any helicopter has such an eventful history. It was the star of the North Sea offshore fleets, was pulled from service after a serious accident in 2016 and has reinvented itself as a military and rescue helicopter. Here you will learn how it came about, what happened in 2016 and how to identify it with confidence.

What is the Airbus H225?

The H225 is a twin-engine helicopter of the eleven-ton class and the flagship of the civil range from Airbus Helicopters. It belongs to the Super Puma family, whose roots reach back to the Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma of the 1960s. Its direct predecessor is the AS332 L2 Super Puma, which today runs together with the older versions under the name H215.

The H225 is powered by two Makila 2A1 turboshafts from the French manufacturer Safran, formerly Turbomeca. The five-blade main rotor measures 16.2 meters in diameter, and the fuselage is about 19.5 meters long. The maximum takeoff weight is about eleven tons, 11.2 tons with external load. On the cargo hook it carries up to 4.75 tons, according to Airbus.

The civil cabin seats 19 to 24 passengers depending on seating; in the medical layout several stretchers fit in. The military version takes up to 28 fully equipped troops. For comparison: the newer H175 is much lighter at just under eight tons takeoff weight and is a completely new design.

According to Airbus, more than 400 H225s and H225Ms have gone to customers in over 40 countries. The family passed the mark of one million flight hours in February 2026.

From the AS332 L2 to the EC225: the development

In the late 1990s Eurocopter wanted to modernize its large Super Puma. In June 1998 the company announced the EC225. At the same time the French air force was looking for a helicopter for combat rescue, that is, recovering downed pilots behind enemy lines. Two lines on the same basis emerged from this: the civil EC225 and the military EC725.

The most important changes compared with the AS332 L2:

Area	AS332 L2 (H215)	EC225 / H225
Main rotor	4 blades	5 blades, Spheriflex rotor head
Engines	Makila 1A2	Makila 2A1 with digital control (FADEC)
Cockpit	conventional instruments	glass cockpit with four large screens
Autopilot	standard	four-axis autopilot with SAR modes and automatic hover

The first flight took place on November 27, 2000. The type is developed and built in Marignane near Marseille, where Airbus Helicopters operates its large French plant right next to Marseille Airport. In July 2004 EASA granted type certification, and at the end of 2004 the type entered service. The French air force received its first EC725 in February 2005.

In the course of the renaming of Eurocopter to Airbus Helicopters, the EC225 and EC725 became the H225 and H225M in 2015. In the same year the type became the first foreign heavy helicopter to receive certification in Russia. A successor project with the working title X6 was started in 2015 but put on ice again in early 2018.

Offshore star of the North Sea – and the deep fall

The EC225 was made for the offshore market: long range, plenty of room, de-icing for winter flights and an autopilot that eases approaches to platforms in bad weather. Operators such as CHC, Bristow and others built up large fleets, and around 2011 CHC had the largest H225 fleet in the world. In Aberdeen, Stavanger and at Bergen Airport the aircraft were part of everyday life.

Two ditchings in 2012

In 2012 two EC225s had to ditch in the North Sea, both because of problems with a shaft in the main gearbox. On May 10, 2012, G-REDW went down after a failure of the gearbox lubrication, and on October 22, 2012, G-CHCN followed. In both cases all occupants survived. After changes to the affected shaft and the warning system, the type returned to service in 2013.

The Turøy accident in 2016

On April 29, 2016, the EC225 LP with the registration LN-OJF of CHC Helikopter Service was on the return flight from the Gullfaks B oil platform to Bergen. A few minutes before landing the main rotor separated from the helicopter, and the aircraft crashed on the small island of Skitholmen near Turøy. All 13 people on board died.

The Norwegian investigation authority AIBN presented its final report in July 2018. The cause was a fatigue fracture of a planet gear of the second stage in the main gearbox. A crack had grown below the surface without the monitoring systems being able to detect it. The authority issued twelve recommendations, including a review of the gearbox design by Airbus.

Grounding and consequences

On the day of the accident the aviation authorities of Norway and the UK stopped commercial operation of the EC225 LP, and in May 2016 also of the AS332 L2. On June 2, 2016, EASA issued an emergency airworthiness directive that banned all flights of the EC225 LP and AS332 L2 in Europe. In October 2016 EASA lifted the ban again subject to conditions, while Norway and the UK initially kept their restrictions in place.

The economic consequences were enormous. The oil group Statoil, now Equinor, announced it would no longer use the type and switched to the Sikorsky S-92. Other oil companies and operators followed. Many civil H225s sat parked for years, were sold to other parts of the world or were converted for firefighting, utility work and rescue service. In 2021 Airbus and the bereaved families reached an out-of-court settlement.

H225M Caracal: the military branch

While the offshore business collapsed, the military version became the most important mainstay. The H225M is designed for special forces, combat rescue, tactical transport and casualty evacuation. Airbus cites a range of 920 kilometers, 1,253 kilometers with auxiliary tanks. Thanks to aerial refueling it can stay airborne for more than ten hours. Added to that are armored seats, self-sealing tanks, missile warning systems and countermeasure dispensers. With the HForce weapon system, machine guns, rockets and guided missiles can be integrated.

France

France is the original customer. The air force ordered the EC725 for combat rescue, and the army also uses it for special forces. The Caracal has flown missions including the evacuation from Lebanon in 2006, in Afghanistan, Libya and Mali. According to Airbus, the H225M has accumulated over 300,000 flight hours in eight theaters of operation.

Poland: the burst major order

Poland caused a great stir. In April 2015 the defense ministry in Warsaw declared it would procure 50 Caracals as new standard helicopters. The aircraft passed the state trials in May 2015. After a change of government the negotiations stalled, mainly over the offset deals for Polish industry. In October 2016 Poland broke off the talks. Relations with France subsequently cooled noticeably. Poland later bought types from other manufacturers instead, including the Leonardo AW101 and the Black Hawk.

Other users

Airbus today lists twelve nations with more than 150 H225Ms in service. These include:

Country	Special feature
Brazil	Production by the Airbus subsidiary Helibras in Itajubá, used by all branches of the armed forces
Mexico	Order in 2009, used against drug cartels
Malaysia	twelve aircraft, involved in the search for MH370
Indonesia	Combat rescue version, first delivery in 2014
Kuwait	Contract for 30 aircraft in 2016
Singapore	Selected in 2016 as a replacement for the Super Puma
Hungary	Part of the modernization of the air force
Netherlands	Contract for twelve aircraft in November 2024

Airbus also names Thailand and Iraq as operators, and in early October 2026 the manufacturer reported an order from Romania for twelve aircraft. Orders and deliveries change constantly, so check current information before planning a targeted trip.

How to identify the H225 with confidence

At first glance the Super Puma family looks very uniform. Three observations help you tell the H225 from its relatives.

The final certainty comes from the registration. Civil aircraft carry a regular national registration, British ones for example a G registration, as described in the article British G registrations. Military Caracals have serial numbers of the respective armed forces. You will find more on identifying rotorcraft in the guide How to identify helicopter types.

Common mix-ups

Another candidate in Europe is the NH90, which the German Armed Forces also fly. It has four blades and a much rounder fuselage. The ancestor of the family, the Puma with its four-blade rotor, you now find mainly in museums and with a few government operators.

Where you will find the H225

There are no permanent H225 bases in Germany. For a sighting you have to plan specifically or get lucky.

Place	Chance of a hit	Why
Airbus plant Marignane near Marseille	high	Final assembly, testing and delivery flights
Military airfields in France	medium	Caracal squadrons of the air force and army
Dutch military airfields	rising	the ordered H225Ms replace the Cougar there
North Sea offshore bases	low to medium	civil presence greatly shrunk after 2016
Aviation trade shows such as Le Bourget	medium	Static display and demonstrations by Airbus Helicopters

At the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget Airbus Helicopters regularly exhibits. Military aircraft do not always transmit ADS-B data. How to track them anyway is explained in the articles Tracking military aircraft online and Finding helicopters on a flight tracker. Special rules apply around military airfields; read the article Photographing military airfields beforehand.

Photo tips for the H225

Large helicopters are more forgiving to photograph than small ones, because the rotor turns more slowly and the blades are long. Even so, the shutter speed decides the picture.

More on the technique is in the guide Photographing propellers: the right shutter speed, and general tips in the article Helicopter spotting. With the sun position planner and the weather and wind data in Planetrack you see before the trip which direction light and approach come from.

Conclusion

The H225 is a helicopter with two faces. Civilly it was once the workhorse of the North Sea, until the Turøy accident in 2016 largely ended its offshore chapter. Militarily, as the Caracal, it is in greater demand than ever, from France via Brazil to the Netherlands. The burst Polish major order shows how political such programs can be. For spotters in Central Europe it remains a rather rare but all the more exciting sighting.