Yes thanks Crab. I flew 5 hours today (including 3 hours IFR, 2 ARA's, 6 deck landings) and will probably do the same tomorrow as most of our 139's have less than 600 hours.
The 139 must be the most popular new helicopter ever introduced to the industry with >400 airframes flying worldwide and with a flying and serviceability rate that the RAF can only dream of.
Of the hundreds of thousands of hours so far flown by the AW139 in geographic and climatic extremes; flown and maintained by operators, pilots and engineers from both ends of the ability spectrum there have been 9 accidents. 5 of them were very probably human error related and of the 4 still under investigation my bet is that a further 2 were human error. For me that leaves 2 unexplained accidents out of 9.
If reports already received of the Brazilian accident are factual I fail to see how the crew were able to declare an emergency, state that they were diverting and suggest that the problem they were experiencing was hydraulic related if the aircraft had thrown a tail rotor blade.
I am no fan of AW mainly because I believe that they show an arrogance that is breathtaking (much like your own), their training is unprofessional and the customer support abysmal. However, I think that the 139 is undoubtedly the best multi-role helicopter of it's class that we have ever seen.
After 30+ years flying and 10,000 hours in helicopters I for one am very happy to be flying it and fully expect to be flying it for the remainder of my career.