Helicopter rescues far more common

The number of helicopter rescues has soared in the upper South Island.

Garden City Helicopters, which operates in Canterbury, Nelson and the West Coast, is getting more calls for help as people go further afield for adventure.

Nelson's Summit rescue helicopter has responded to 14 calls this year, seven of which were on January 1.

The latest callout was at 6am today, when a 53-year-old North Canterbury farmer was flown from Torrent Bay in Abel Tasman National Park to Nelson Hospital, after slipping from his moored boat and suffering deep cuts to his leg from the boat's propeller.

Yesterday the helicopter crew searched for an emergency locator beacon that was activated at midday in Kahurangi National Park.

Using new tracking equipment, the crew found the beacon in the Leslie River area. It had been activated by a party of eight trampers because one of them, a 58-year-old woman, had possibly broken her ankle.

Unable to land because of the thick vegetation, the crew winched the woman aboard and flew her to Nelson Hospital.

The helicopter was then diverted to the Stanley Brook area of Tapawera, where a 13-year-old boy had fallen from a motocross bike on a farm and injured his back. He was also flown to Nelson Hospital.

Other jobs since the start of the year were spread between the Marlborough Sounds and Farewell Spit.

The patients included a Christchurch man who became unconscious at Kaiteriteri Beach after being stung by a bee, an infant with a broken ankle, a jetskier with a dislocated shoulder, a man who fell into a fire, a woman who fell from a lookout, and two cardiac patients.

Garden City Helicopters Nelson base manager Tim Douglas-Clifford said the number of calls was increasing each year.

The service had 255 jobs last year, 223 in 2008 and 200 in 2007.

Garden City Helicopters general manager Simon Duncan said similar increases were happening at all its bases.

Mr Douglas-Clifford said the influx of visitors meant summer was hectic in Nelson, but there were now more calls in winter for trampers, skiers and car accidents, he said.

"People are always going to make mistakes and have a slip-up. Our advice is not to leave it until night is approaching to call for help. Get the call out early so we can clear it up," he said.

The nature of the rescue determined whether the Ministry of Health, ACC, police or the National Rescue Co-ordination Centre was billed for the callout, he said.

Mr Duncan said helicopters made good use of time and resources and benefited patients.

More people using the outdoors, the use of night vision goggles by pilots and more calls on helicopters to respond to injury accidents meant the workload was rising, he said.

"It is no longer practical to send a search party into the bush for days to carry someone out. Instead, we are seeing aircraft being used for the purpose they are meant for."

Greymouth-based Solid Energy rescue helicopter pilot Angus Taylor said the Christmas-New Year period had been relatively quiet on the West Coast.

One callout had been for a 22-year-old woman who had dislocated her jaw while yawning. The helicopter made several trips to South Westland, including flying out a German hunter with an ankle injury. Fairfax

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