Flood rescue

When the Macalister River broke its banks the Air Wing dispatched one of its two twin-engine AS 365N3 Dauphin helicop-ters, VH-PVH, callsign ‘Air 490’.

Check and Training pilot Senior Constable Mike Tavcar, pilot (flying In Charge Under Supervision) Senior Constable David Lord, air observers Senior Constable Rick Harvey (winch operator & mission commander) and Senior Constable Rachael O’Brien (winch crewman) left the Air Wing’s Essendon Airport base at 1100 and arrived at the Newry stag-ing area, some 90nm to the east of Melbourne, shortly after midday.

On the ground Snr Const Harvey received an alarm-ing briefing from local police Sgt John Byers. When the outflow from Lake Glenmaggie reached 35,000 megalitres per day major flooding occurred, and that morning the outflow was 147,000 megalitres.

Downstream, water was rising fast, people were trapped and rescue boats still hadn’t arrived.

The first rescue was a woman stranded in Newry’s town centre. Water had surrounded her house and there was nowhere to land.

Wearing a dry suit and equipped with a radio, Snr Const O’Brien was lowered to the ground. O’Brien secured the woman using a rescue strop, and in a stand-ing double lift, they were winched up to the helicopter together.

The crew then began to airlift small groups of people from high ground on the eastern side of Newry, ferrying them to the staging area. This was interrupted by a request to winch a young woman stranded on the outskirts of town. The woman, along with a small dog stowed in her backpack, was rescued with a double lift.

Just after 1400, Air 490 diverted to Heyfield to re-fuel, as air observers Bryan Norman and Stuart Browne had been unable to get the Air Wing’s 6000 litre fuel truck through the floods.

The air evacuations continued, with the crew constantly called from one location to another. First, an elderly man and a handi-capped boy were airlifted from Newry. Minutes later a mother, her two children and an 18 month old baby were rescued from a farm near Tinamba, before the crew was diverted again.

Navigating proved difficult because the usual landmarks were underwater. There were no discernable roads so Air 490 had to estimate distances and use descriptions of houses to find people.

With time working against it, Air 490 was requested to winch a couple in their nine-ties. They were trapped in their home and neighbours

In just one afternoon the Air Wing winched seven people and airlifted 50 others.

them. Snr Const O’Brien was winched into the front yard of the house.

“When I disconnected I saw they had all their worldly possessions lined up at the front door. He was all dressed up in his favourite hat, both of them had walking frames and I had to tell them we couldn’t take anything. They were very stoic,” she recalled.

Snr Const O’Brien was winched with the woman first using a standing double lift before returning for the man who was too frail to be lifted in the same way. Instead, O’Brien had him sit on the seat of his walking frame while she passed a strap from the back of the rescue strop under his knees. He was hoisted off the walking frame in a seated position. This technique is usually used for hypother-mic patients, but its use here ensured such a frail man was rescued safely and without injury.

At 1630 much needed assistance came with the ar-rival of the RAAF East Sale SAR helicopter (Chopper 2, a Sikorsky S-76), crewed by CHC personnel. During the afternoon Chopper 2 winched one person and airlifted up to 30 others.

Air 490 returned to Heyfield and refuelled for a second time. Snr Const Lord stayed with the fuel truck and the rescues continued into the night with the standard crew of three.

At 1830 Air 490 was called to another winch. Using the SX-16 Nitesun, a 30 million candle power search light, they located two men and an 11 year old boy. The trio was standing in waist deep water, waving frantically for help.

Snr Const Harvey winched O’Brien down where they were standing on the road, but she was nearly knocked off her feet by the current and it was hard to see her. It was pretty tight, there were trees higher than us just off our nose, more just below our tail, and power lines about five metres from the winch cable.

Air 490 refuelled for a third time, returned to Newry and continued to airlift residents. Snr Const O’Brien remained in the town to organise evacuees, but tensions were rising along with the water and she was forced to break up a brawl which erupted over the order people were getting out.

“You don’t expect to come across people fighting; I thought ‘what next’?” At around 2000 Chopper 2 returned from a crew change and with only two loads of people still to airlift and pilot duty times an issue, Air 490 completed operations for the day.

“It had been a very busy day and time went quickly, but everybody did their bit,” said Snr Const Tavcar. “I had contacted CASA about my duty times and received advice that finishing at that time was within the duty time limits. ” From 11 that morning until eight that night, Air 490 was in the air for seven hours, refuelled three times, airlifted up to 50 people and winched seven to safety – all in a day’s work.

Navigating proved difficult because the usual landmarks were underwater.