Qatar has not disclosed which aircraft type was involved in a fatal military helicopter accident that killed all seven people on board.
“A Qatari helicopter suffered a technical malfunction while performing routine duty, which led to its crash in the country’s territorial waters,” Doha’s defense ministry stated on 22 March.
Without identifying the model involved, it describes the aircraft as having been “intended to transport personnel”.
After completing a search and rescue operation later the same day, the ministry confirmed that four Qatari military personnel had lost their lives, along with a member of the Turkish armed forces and two civilian contractors from the Turkish company Aselsan.
The Qatar Emiri Air Force’s rotorcraft fleet includes 28 NH Industries NH90s – a mix of tactical transport and NFH-variant maritime examples – which aviation analytics company Cirium records as being aged up to five years.
It also has 21 Leonardo Helicopters AW139 utility rotorcraft within its inventory.
