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Firefighting aircraft directory/France/Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma/ZT-RYE

Aircraft reference

ZT-RYE

Eurocopter EC225 LP Super Puma Mk2+ · Starlite Aviation

Helicopter bombersFrancePuma B
Photograph of ZT-RYE

Adolfo Bento de Urquía · All rights reserved · Planespotters.net

Identity

Mission
Helicopter bombers
Registration
ZT-RYE
Mode-S address
009343
ICAO type
EC25
Model
Eurocopter EC225 LP Super Puma Mk2+
Manufacturer
Eurocopter
Serial number
2872
Operator
Starlite Aviation
Country of registration
South Africa
Call sign
Puma B

South African-registered seasonal heavy water bomber deployed to France for the 2026 fire season.

About the Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma

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

The H225 or EC225 is a long-range heavy twin-engine helicopter. In a firefighting fit it can carry a large bucket for powerful, precise drops; its cabin and range also support firefighter transport, evacuation, and rescue.

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

Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma

The Airbus Helicopters H225 is a long-range passenger transport helicopter developed by Eurocopter as the next generation of the civilian Super Puma family. It is a twin-engined aircraft and can carry up to 24 passengers along with two crew and a cabin attendant, dependent on customer configuration. The helicopter is marketed for offshore support and VIP passenger transport duties, as well as public service missions.

ICAO type · EC25

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…

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 EC25ICAO Doc 8643 entry: designator, wake category, engines.
Reference data assembled on July 27, 2026 from hexdb.io, Flightradar24, Planespotters, Planespotters. Run pnpm fetch:aircraft --refresh to rebuild it.