Aramco Crash Kills 14 Two Days After Oil Restart

A Saudi Aramco helicopter crash killed all 14 people aboard near Ras Tanura at about 6:00 a.m. on June 28, 2026. The energy ministry said every victim was a Saudi national, and it opened a probe without naming a cause.

Crude loadings at the same terminal had resumed on Friday, June 26, after a near four-month halt tied to the war around the Strait of Hormuz. The dead were on a company shuttle, not on a tanker or a pipeline.

Fourteen Saudi Nationals Died on the Sunday Approach

The ministry announcement of the 14 deaths put the time at about 6:00 a.m. local, which is 03:00 GMT, and said relevant authorities would seek the cause. It did not name the aircraft, the operator’s subsidiary, the flight’s origin, or anyone on board.

The Ministry of Energy regrets to announce that a helicopter operated by Saudi Aramco crashed in Ras Tanura on Sunday, June 28, 2026, at approximately 6:00 a.m. The accident resulted in the martyrdom of all 14 individuals on board, all of whom were Saudi nationals. The relevant authorities have launched a full investigation to determine the cause of the crash.

Ministry of Energy, official statement, June 28, 2026

Aviation records split those 14 as 12 passengers and 2 crew. Tracking identified the airframe as a Leonardo AW139 registered HZ-AL65, flown by Aloula Aviation, Aramco’s wholly owned aviation company, on a round trip between Ras Tanura Airport (OERT) and an unnamed offshore installation.

The first public reading folded the loss into the Iran war that had just kept the terminal dark. The ministry never made that claim, and it gave no hint of hostile fire.

Ras Tanura Had Just Started Loading Crude Again

LSEG shipping data showed Aramco loading crude at Ras Tanura on Friday, June 26, for the first time since a cargo for China left on March 8. Two Bahri-controlled very large crude carriers were at the berths, with another tanker waiting, each able to lift about 2 million barrels.

Before the conflict the terminal had exported more than 5 million barrels a day. Kingdom-wide crude flows, per the same shipping data, fell to about 4 million barrels a day over the following three months, from more than 7 million a day in February, after Iran’s blockade of the strait forced exports onto the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

FROM THE LAST CARGO TO THE CRASH

1. March 8, 2026: The last Ras Tanura cargo for China loads, after which Gulf liftings stop and oil moves through Yanbu.
2. June 26, 2026: Two Bahri VLCCs load at Ras Tanura and a third waits nearby, the first Gulf loadings in a near four-month halt.
3. June 28, 2026: An Aloula AW139 comes down on approach to Ras Tanura Airport at about 6:00 a.m., killing all 14 aboard.
4. June 29, 2026: Funeral prayer is held at Al-Furqan Mosque in Dammam; Sudan’s Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan sends condolences to King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The site also holds the kingdom’s largest domestic refinery, rated at 550,000 barrels a day, which had been shut in the war as a precaution. Shipping reports from the days around the restart still described Hormuz as unsafe, including a commercial ship hit in the strait on June 25. The helicopter loss sat inside that reopening, and it is still not clear from official statements whether any plant or berth was hit.

What Tracking Data Showed on the Approach

ADS-B data used in the Aviation Safety Network file show HZ-AL65 on that offshore round trip. The last point, timed at 06:11, sits north of the airport and logs a final recorded descent of 1,216 feet per minute.

That 06:11 stamp is the last broadcast, not the ministry’s 6:00 a.m. notice. The file lists manufacturer serial 31951, puts the flight in the approach phase, and marks the helicopter destroyed. Its confidence rating is that the account rests on news, social posts, and unofficial sources, because Saudi authorities have not released an official identification of the aircraft.

THE SUNDAY FLIGHT

Until a flight-data readout is published, that descent rate is the hardest public number on how the helicopter arrived. It does not say why the crew was descending that fast, and it does not close out weather, a mechanical fault, or a handling error.

Aloula Aviation Flies Aramco’s Offshore Runs

Aramco dates its flying to a Fairchild 71 bought in 1934 for desert mapping. Helicopters joined in the 1970s and 1980s so crews could reach platforms without slow boat runs in rough water. The aviation unit was spun out in 2023 as Mukamalah Aviation and rebranded in 2024 as Aloula, Arabic for “the first one.”

As of 2025, Aramco said Aloula ran a mixed fleet of over 60 aircraft and moved more than 1 million passengers a year through 12 domestic airports and more than 300 helipads onshore and offshore. The AW139 is the workhorse for those Gulf decks. Leonardo’s civil sheet gives it two Pratt & Whitney PT6C-67C engines, a cruise of 165 knots (306 km/h), a 6,400 kg max gross weight, and a cabin that can carry up to 15 passengers.

The energy-role cabin is usually 12 crashworthy seats. That matches the passenger count on HZ-AL65. On June 17, 2025, at the Paris Air Show, Leonardo and Aloula announced 300,000 flight hours on Aloula’s AW139s, with the type in company service since 2008 and the fleet then at 27 aircraft.

ALOULA’S SAFETY FILE

• ARGUS rating: The company held an ARGUS Platinum rating in 2022, a charter-safety audit Aramco cited in its own aviation history.
• Repair tickets: Aloula is certified by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation and holds a U.S. FAA repair-station ticket for in-house work on FAA-registered aircraft.
• Maker centre: In July 2024 Leonardo named Aloula an Authorized Service Center in Saudi Arabia for AW139 maintenance, including third-party work in the region.
• Hours on type: The AW139 fleet logged 300,000 hours by June 2025, with more airframes then still due.

Those credentials describe a mature offshore operator, not a pickup fleet. The June 28 flight was the job those helicopters exist to do: move people between a Gulf platform and the airport beside the export terminal.

Funeral Prayers at Al-Furqan Mosque in Dammam

Funeral prayer for the 14 was held on Monday, June 29, at Al-Furqan Mosque in Dammam. The energy ministry had already asked that God accept the dead as martyrs. It still had not published their names.

Condolences moved through official channels the same week. Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Oman sent them. The New Zealand embassy in Riyadh addressed the government, Aramco, and the families. Australian ambassador Miles Armitage wrote that his thoughts were with those affected. Sudan’s Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan sent telegrams to the king and the crown prince.

The 14 never became public biographies. For a company that says it flies more than a million passengers a year, the official record of this run is a headcount and a nationality. The people on HZ-AL65 were the ones the restarted terminal needed in the air at 6:00 a.m., and they are the ones the statement left unnamed.

The Public File Still Has No Cause

The Aviation Safety Network entry was last edited on June 29, 2026, the day after the crash. A later encyclopedia summary dated September 30 still described the accident as under investigation. No GACA preliminary report had been posted in that public file by then.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The toll: All 14 people on board died, and the ministry said all were Saudi nationals.
• The job: Tracking shows an offshore shuttle back to Ras Tanura Airport, not a passenger airline flight.
• The clock: Loadings restarted on June 26; the helicopter came down on June 28.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The cause: No official finding on weather, maintenance, or crew action has been issued.
• The airframe: HZ-AL65 is the ADS-B identity; the ministry has not confirmed the type or the registration.
• The plant: It has not been stated whether wreckage reached the refinery, the berths, or only ground near the airport.

Aloula’s AW139s are built to haul 12 people off a platform and put them on the ramp at OERT. On June 28 that run ended north of the field in a 1,216-foot-per-minute descent, two days after Ras Tanura started loading oil again. The ministry’s last public word on the 14 remains the first one.