Last week, a second dedicated rescue helicopter arrived in Queenstown, boosting Helicopter Otago’s fleet across the South to five.
The BK117’s arrival also means more highly skilled aviation medical staff on the ground in the resort — there are now 10 paramedics, including winchmen, and five pilots assigned to the basin’s two rescue choppers.
Helicopters Otago chief executive Graeme Gale said, in another first for Queenstown, it was also the start of having instrument flight rules, or IFR, capability, meaning the pilots could fly in cloud, at night, on designed and certified routes, with approaches in and out of hospital.
‘‘It allows us to do a lot more missions [than] we could ever do before,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a very, very big deal.’’
He noted, however, fog would continue to be a limiting factor — ‘‘no-one can fly, legally, in fog’’.
Queenstown’s Lakes District Air Rescue Trust chairman Jules Tapper believed the arrival of the second helicopter and development of IFR meant the resort was now home to a ‘‘world-class service ... which is as good, if not better, than anything else in the world’’.
Mr Gale said the investment was driven by the increased number of missions the rescue helicopters were flying throughout Queenstown-Lakes and Central Otago.
That was in part due to tourism returning, the population increasing and more people exploring the back country or enjoying recreational pursuits which, inevitably, had an element of risk associated.
‘‘We have neurosurgery in Dunedin about a third of the time. The rest of the time, if you’re needing neurosurgery or if you’re destined for a clot retrieval, with stroke, when we pick you up, your next destination’s going to be Christchurch,’’ Mr Gale said.
‘‘They’ve got what they call clinical pathways — heart attacks, strokes ... burns patients, spinal patients — they’ve all got destination hospitals that specialise in those [areas], so we will end up flying to wherever we need to.
‘‘Hopefully, we’re that link between the community and the destination hospital where they’re going to get that definitive care and back to a quality of life in a faster timeframe than they’d normally have.’’
He was particularly grateful to Lakes District Air Rescue Trust and Dunedin’s Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter Trust, which picked up the shortfall from the government contract and helped provide some of the life-saving equipment.
‘‘This wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for both of those trusts.
‘‘I just can’t thank them, or the community ... trusts, enough for what they’ve done.’’
Mr Tapper said the two trusts raised about $1.5 million a year for the service.
The next major fundraiser was the annual Westpac Chopper Ride, from Queenstown to Invercargill, on May 12.
