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Firefighting aircraft directory/Ireland/AgustaWestland AW139/279

Aircraft reference

279

AGUSTA AW-139 · Irish Air Corps, 3 Operations Wing

Helicopter bombersIreland
Photograph of 279

Chris Lofting · GFDL 1.2 · Wikimedia Commons

Identity

Mission
Helicopter bombers
Registration
279
Mode-S address
4CA336
ICAO type
A139
Model
AGUSTA AW-139
Manufacturer
AgustaWestland
Operator
Irish Air Corps, 3 Operations Wing
Country of registration
Ireland
Home base
Casement · Ireland

AW139 with a 1,200 l bucket; also flies rescue and transport.

About the AgustaWestland AW139

Water-bombing helicopter

It uses a suspended bucket or an installed tank to take water from a nearby source and place short, precise drops, including in steep or confined terrain. Depending on its configuration, it may also move crews, equipment, or rescue teams.

What this type can do

In its firefighting configuration, the twin-engine AW139 uses a bucket to make precise water drops while retaining the speed and cabin of a rescue and transport helicopter. It can switch between suppression, crew movement, and support missions as configured.

This describes the type’s usual firefighting capability; it does not prove what this aircraft is carrying or doing now.

AgustaWestland AW139

The AgustaWestland AW139, now known as the Leonardo AW139, is a 15-seat medium-sized twin-engined helicopter developed and produced by the Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, now part of Leonardo. It is marketed at several different roles, including VIP/corporate transport, military use, offshore transport, firefighting, law enforcement, search and rescue, emergency medical service, disaster relief, and maritime patrol.

ICAO type · A139

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Flight history

Every sortie this server has recorded, reconstructed from the positions the volunteer ADS-B network heard. Select a row to isolate it on the map.

Reading the archive…

Photographs

Freely licensed images are stored with this project; the rest are shown from the site that publishes them.

  • Photograph of the aircraft

    Irish Defence Forces · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Photograph of the aircraft

    Steve Lynes from Sandshurst, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Photograph of the aircraft

    Steve Lynes from Sandshurst, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Photograph of the aircraft

    Irish Defence Forces from Ireland · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

  • Photograph of the aircraft

    Werner Verbogt · All rights reserved · Planespotters.net

Elsewhere

Live tracking & flight history

  • Flightradar24Commercial flight history, airport pairs and scheduled times.
  • ADS-B ExchangeUnfiltered live globe, including aircraft other trackers hide.
  • adsb.lolThe volunteer network this map reads its trajectories from.
  • FlightAwareRegistration record and recent activity.

Photography

  • JetPhotosScreened spotter photography, newest first.
  • Planespotters.netPhotographs alongside the production and delivery record.
  • Airliners.netLong-running photo archive, often the oldest images of a frame.
  • Wikimedia CommonsFreely licensed images — the ones this sheet is allowed to host.

Registries & airframe records

  • Airframes.orgAirframe history: serial number, operators, incidents.
  • adsbdbOpen registration database, in JSON.
  • hexdb.ioMode-S address record used by the tracking community, in JSON.

Type reference

  • ICAO type A139ICAO Doc 8643 entry: designator, wake category, engines.
Reference data assembled on July 27, 2026 from adsbdb, hexdb.io, Wikimedia Commons, Planespotters. Run pnpm fetch:aircraft --refresh to rebuild it.