ARHT chopper takes flight on Boxing Day from Whitianga

Yahoo! News

Dec 21 2011

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter will take flight once again on Boxing Day to help cope with the emergencies of the Coromandel’s holiday crowds.

The chopper will be based at Whitianga until Auckland Anniversary Weekend and will provide a dedicated 24-hour seven day a week service to the Thames Coromandel area and Great Barrier Island.

The initiative was started last summer in response to a large increase in missions to the Thames/Coromandel region.

In previous times the Westpac Rescue Helicopter had flown from its base at Mechanics Bay, Auckland, on emergency missions to the area, but the commissioning of another chopper by the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust means a machine can be on site to help cope with a swell in the population during the holiday period of up to 130,000 people.

ARHT Chief Executive Bob Parkinson says there has been a 64 percent increase in the total number of missions to the Thames Coromandel region between 2006 and 2009.

“We had a very successful summer last year, performing 60 missions within the Thames Coromandel area in the period up to Anniversary Weekend, compared with 28 the year before.

“This year is looking to be even bigger, with the Westpac Rescue Helicopter heading for its busiest year ever with 768 mission already performed, compared with last year’s 628,” say Mr Parkinson.

He says having a dedicated rescue chopper based at Whitianga will reduce response times to emergencies, helping the local First Response service, Police, Search and Rescue and Fire deal with the huge demand that comes with the influx of people to the area during the summer holidays.

A recent $25,000 grant from the Thames Coromandel District Council is helping the Whitianga initiative, which will cost $50,000 for the five weeks, to go ahead as well as generous sponsorship from local businesses including Tony Richard Toyota, Watts Group, Troy Wheeler Contracting, Pro Floors and Whitianga Ice, Architectural Profiles Ltd, Coromandel FM, Tenix, Warren Fowler Quarries and NZ Hothouse 

Westpac Rescue Helicopter crews will take it in shifts to cover the Whitianga service, which will co-ordinated by Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust Helicopter Manager Greg Brownson.

The summer season will round off a year of significant milestones for the ARHT. In October it announced the signing of a contract for a new, state-of-the-art AW169 machine by 2015 and in September launched at trial Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) program which has seen Emergency Doctors flying onboard mission for the first time.