One of the six Airbus AS365N3 Dauphin helicopters operated by the Army Air Corps in the UK has had an accident, the manufacturer has confirmed in an document released in the public domain.  The severity of the accident has put the aircraft beyond economic repair.

In the latest edition of its “List of potentially scrapped, cannibalized or destroyed Airbus Helicopters aircraft” document, the OEM includes reference to Dauphin MSN 6813.  Specialist helicopter market intelligence firm Parapex Media confirms that this airframe is operated by the British Army’s 658 Squadron and carries the serial ZJ781.  The document is dated “end of June 2023”

HeliHub.com contacted the UK Ministry of Defence, who confirmed that this aircraft had an accident on 16th June 2022.

The fleet of six Dauphins – now reduced to five – is operated by 658 Squadron in support of Special Forces regiments based in Herefordshire.  All are painted in the dark blue with white scheme shown in the image below of the subject helicopter.

The Dauphin is one of four helicopter types being replaced under the New Military Helicopter (NMH) program in the UK, alongside the Puma, Bell 212 and 412 – the latter known as the Griffin in UK military service.  Three bid teams are short-listed for NMH, and are proposing the Sikorsky Black Hawk, Airbus H175M and the Leonardo AW149.

Reproduced with full permission of the photographer