Amazing rescue leads to top award for Sumner Lifeboat crew

A Christchurch-based coastguard crew has been recognised for their battle against atrocious conditions to save a crashed hang glider pilot.

The Sumner Lifeboat Institution was awarded Rescue of the Year at the 2022 Coastguard Awards for Excellence.

Said Coastguard New Zealand: “The skills of those crew members involved, both on and off the water, were exemplary and are a testament to the success of the rescue.”

Around noon on July 25 last year, the Sumner Lifeboat Institution was called out by police to attend to the man who had crashed into Whitewash Head, Sumner. 

In changing wind conditions, the pilot had lost lift while flying over and ending up at the bottom of the cliffs.

Crew member Howard Nicholls said the team knew the cliff well, but it was “quite a dangerous area.”

“In that particular rescue, there was an onshore wind which basically means it’s creating a swell on shore so that makes it quite tricky accessing and getting out of the area.”

Six crew members responded aboard the Hamilton Jet Rescue and Urquhard Trust Rescue – a jet ski.

They were Blair Quane, father and son Dave and Finley Passmore, Tom Denman, Sam Bradley and Patrice de Beer.

Said Quane: “We went around and located where he was and then . . . myself, and two other crew, swam into the shore.”

“The conditions were rough but it wasn’t too bad.”

For about one-and-a-half hours, one member on the shore, who was a medic, gave first aid to the victim who was conscious.

“He was pretty bashed up, numerous broken bones and a concussion,” Quane said.

They continued first aid until the rescue helicopter arrived. Manoeuvring him down the beach, they enabled him to be winched up and flown to Christchurch Hospital.

“The problem we had then was the swell had come up quite considerably, so for us to get out the way we came in wasn’t going to happen,” Quane said.

They had to walk another 200-300m along the base of the rocky cliff and time their escape between sets of the swell. 

Then they had to swim one by one back to the boat. 

He said the rescue was unique as they did not normally have so much trouble getting back to the boat.

“The conditions were probably some of the worst I would have been (in) in a rescue in that area before,” he said.

Nicholls noted they treat that area with “a lot of respect and care . . . if you’re going into the area, you need to know what you’re doing.”

Quane said the award was “unexpected” but good.

“It’s a nice recognition of what we do in our spare time.”

Said Nicholls: “It means a lot because we’ve been recognised as a unit across all of the units in New Zealand.”

The volunteer crew is made up of about 30 members of all ages and skill-sets.

Nicholls said they are on call 24/7 to “make (themselves) available for whenever things need (them).”

The man called Quane about a week after the rescue.

“He spent a wee bit of time in the hospital . . . I think he had broken some ribs and again a concussion and things, but I think he was doing okay at that stage,” he said.

The man thanked the coastguard for rescuing him and inquired about getting his hang glider back, which was still stranded at the bottom of the  cliff.

Quane said he had taken a small inflatable boat out when conditions were better and retrieved it. 

He did not seem like the type of guy to stop hang gliding, Quane noted. He was “a die-hard.”