New Cairns emergency helicopter en route to Qld

The Queensland Government’s latest $16 million emergency rescue helicopter has left its Italian manufacturer en route to its new home at Cairns, Treasurer and Acting Emergency Services Minister Andrew Fraser said today.

Mr Fraser said the Government had invested $48 million over three years to buy three new Agusta Westland (AW) 139 helicopters to upgrade Emergency Management Queensland Rescue’s current fleet. The first two AW139 helicopters have arrived and started operations from Brisbane and Townsville.

“The latest AW 139 helicopter at Townsville transported the base jumper injured at Wallaman Falls near Ingham on Sunday,” Mr Fraser said.

“The State Budget included the final $2.5 million instalment for the AW139 Cairns helicopter. This completes a major $48 million upgrade to the Government’s emergency rescue helicopter fleet.”
Mr Fraser said the Cairns-bound AW139 helicopter was due to be shipped from Southampton in the United Kingdom to Brisbane next month. Work re-assembling the helicopter in Redcliffe is due to start in July-August.
“From there, the new helicopter will be based in Cairns to undertake up to six weeks testing and training for crews before the helicopter becomes fully operational for aero-medical rescues by the end of the year,” Mr Fraser said.
“AW139 helicopters based at Townsville and Cairns will boost search and rescue and aero-medical patient transfer across north Queensland, providing EMQ Rescue with a greater flight range and speed.”
“The AW139 boast a 30% increase in range and a 20% increase in speed than the helicopter it will replace.”
“The new helicopter demonstrates the Government’s commitment to plan for future needs of north Queensland and improving emergency service responses.”
“When configured for EMQ Helicopter Rescue, the AW 139 helicopters will have a single flight endurance of three hours, giving it an operational range of 870 kilometres, flying at 290km per hour.”

“For patients this means that nearly 25 minutes can be slashed off a two-hour retrieval mission, significantly improving medical care. In emergencies, every extra minute saved is critical.”

The Department of Emergency Services operates a Bell 412 rescue helicopter at its Emergency Management Queensland (EMQ) Helicopter Rescue hangar at Cairns.
EMQ Helicopter Rescue remains one of Australia’s busiest emergency helicopter networks with in excess of 2500 hours annually including search and rescue (over land and sea), primary medical response, hospital patient transfers and evacuations.
Contact: Kirby Anderson: 0418 197 350
Renee Mickelburgh: 0458 357 539