Rescue helicopters kept busy

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 11 calls this year, seven of which were on January 1.

The jobs were spread between the Marlborough Sounds and Farewell Spit.

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

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 of its bases.

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.

Being experienced or highly prepared did not make anyone immune to accidents.

"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, the ACC, police or the National Rescue Co-ordination Centre were billed for the callout.

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 dispatchers increasingly calling on helicopters to respond to injury accidents meant work was on the rise, he said.

"It is no longer practical to send a search party into the bush for days to carry someone out," he said. "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.

- © Fairfax NZ News