Westpac Rescue Helicopter 2009 RNZAF Base Whenuapai Air Show

The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

accident and emergency rescue and transport service operated by the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust (ARHT). The trust operates two

AW169 The AgustaWestland AW169 is a twin-engine, 10-seat, 4.8t helicopter developed and manufactured by the helicopter division of Leonardo (formerly AgustaWestland, merged into Finmeccanica since 2016). It was designed to share similarities with the ...

and one BK117 helicopters on behalf of the helicopter owners—the greater Auckland community. There are four "Westpac Rescue Helicopter" services in New Zealand, but they are all separate entities and only linked by the same major sponsor. The aircraft and crew are trained and equipped to operate day and night, their missions range from emergency/accident casualty transport, to medical transfers (

medevac Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of a ...

s), rescue searches and airlifts. The service flew 1065 missions in 2017. The trust added specialist emergency medicine critical care doctors to the crew line-up in September 2011 when it commenced a two-year HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) pilot study in partnership with

Auckland District Health Board Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) was a district health board that provided healthcare in the Auckland Region in New Zealand, mainly on the Auckland isthmus. This district health board existed between 2001 and 2022 and was governed by a part- ...

(ADHB). The project received additional funding to continue for a further three years in mid 2013.

History

The Auckland Rescue Helicopter Service was started by the Auckland Surf Life Saving Association leasing a Hiller 12E helicopter from Alexander Helicopters Ltd for six summer weekends of 1970/1971, becoming the world's first civilian rescue helicopter service. The helicopter flown by George Sobiecke was based on the hill behind the

Piha Surf Life Saving Club Piha Surf Life Saving Club (sometimes called Piha Lifeguard Service) is a surf lifesaving club for the southern section of Piha, on the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand, some 45 km from the Auckland City centre. The patrol was featured i ...

. From 1971 on, the rescue helicopter service operated during the surf life saving club patrolling season from Labour Weekend to Easter. A Rescue Helicopter Squad of 32 specially trained lifeguards from the various clubs affiliated to the Auckland Surf Life Saving Association was formed. Pilot George Sobieke departed in 1972 to be replaced by Sam Anderson. Surf reports were radioed from the helicopter for live broadcast over

Radio Hauraki Radio Hauraki is a New Zealand rock music station that started in 1966. It was the first private commercial radio station of the modern broadcasting era in New Zealand and operated illegally until 1970 to break the monopoly held by the state-o ...

. In January 1973 the Hiller 12E was replaced by a jet engine powered Hiller FH1100. Apart from weekends this helicopter was also used during the summer school holidays and had one of the helicopter squad members working as a paid helicopter lifeguard for this period. Money raised from surf reports provided by the duty helicopter lifeguards was used to purchase and redecorate a batch opposite the toilet block on the middle beach at Piha. This became the summer base for the rescue helicopter crew with a landing pad to the north of the Piha Middle Beach toilet block. In 1977 Keith McKenzie replaced Sam as the pilot. On 8 January 1977 the then prime minister Robert Muldoon, who was at

Piha Piha is a coastal settlement in West Auckland, on the western coast of the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is one of the most popular beaches in the area and a major day-trip destination for Aucklanders throughout the year, and especially ...

for the re-opening of the Piha Surf Life Saving club house after the Project 40 rebuild, joined the helicopter lifeguards to jump into the surf and be lifted out of the water and be transported back to the beach slung under the helicopter using the rescue strop connected into the cargo hook. On 7 July 2020 Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust Acting CEO

Michelle Boag Michelle Ann Boag (born 10 December 1954) is a New Zealand public relations practitioner and former National Party president. Biography She was educated at Auckland Girls' Grammar School and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political scie ...

resigned from her position after admitting to leaking confidential patient details of COVID-19 patients to National Party MP Hamish Walker.

Helicopters

The trust operates one BK117 (850D2 variant) helicopter. These can attain cruising (long-distance) speeds of around 200 km/h (120 mph), and have a range of about 500 km (300

nautical miles A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today t ...

), carrying 605 litres internally and a further 300 litres with auxiliary fuel tanks. Their registrations is ''ZK-HKZ'',

callsigns In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

''Westpac Rescue 3'' A leased Auckland service model was replaced in 2007 by a second-hand model of the same make (with a low number of flight hours and was fully rebuilt from the ground up), and equipped with extended night-flying gear, weather radar and better internal configuration. The new helicopter cost $3.3 million

NZD The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New ...

, compared with a yearly lease of NZ$1 million for the previous model. A second machine was purchased in 2010, providing better coverage to the more than 1.5 million population of the serviced region. The trust planned to replace its helicopters with

AgustaWestland AW169 The AgustaWestland AW169 is a twin-engine, 10-seat, 4.8t helicopter developed and manufactured by the helicopter division of Leonardo (formerly AgustaWestland, merged into Finmeccanica since 2016). It was designed to share similarities with the ...

s in 2018 following a public fundraising campaign.

Funding

The helicopters have numerous financial supporters in the community and corporate sectors as they are only partially Government funded. The main naming rights sponsor is the

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

n bank

Westpac Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales. Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, ...

. The sponsorship began in 1981 when Westpac sponsored the Wellington helicopter service.Westpac Rescue Helicopters
(from the

New Zealand website)

References

External links

{{Official website, https://www.rescuehelicopter.org.nz Air ambulance services in New Zealand Charities based in New Zealand

History

Helicopters

Funding

See also

References

External links