Flying between the flags

After a 40-minute search honing in on a bouncing signal from an activated EPIRB, Lifesaver 1 locates two young boys wearing life jackets floating with two adult males treading water clinging to an esky in open water.

“They were just four specks bobbing around virtually in the middle of the ocean hanging on to an esky and an EPIRB,” recounts Stephen Leahy, chief executive officer, Southern Region Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter Rescue Service, of the search and rescue on January 5 2012. “Their boat sank unexpectedly in a matter of minutes into 65m of water. ” Hovering overhead, a liferaft is dropped from Lifesaver 1 as a New South Wales Water Police launch charges from over the horizon. “There was a lot of coordination here at our base to make that rescue happen,” said Leahy, an ex-Victoria Police senior detective and once a volunteer crewman on the Gold Coast-based Surf Life Saving helicopter in the early 1990s. “It would’ve made for brilliant television had we winched those people from the water, but our crew made the right decision as they could see the water police craft would be on scene in a matter of minutes. They decided not to begin a winch and instead stayed hovering overhead guiding the police launch straight to them. There’s no doubt about it, we saved their lives. ” This is just one of many lifesaving stories in the 40-year history of Australia’s oldest civil helicopter rescue service which celebrated its milestone anniversary on September 30 last year. Commencing operations along Sydney’s city beaches using a fixed float-equipped Bell 47G prior to the summer of 1973, the then Wales Rescue Helicopter Service made its first ever rescue in the surf off Bronte Beach three weeks later. It was the beginning of what we all take for granted today – rescue by helicopter.

Now 40 years on, and with countless lives saved, without an Ambulance Service of New South Wales’ aeromedical contract and the challenges of government funding, Westpac Lifesaver Southern Region more than flies between the flags for its owner, Surf Life Saving Australia. Perplexed that an important anniversary went virtually unnoticed, Leahy said: “We have grown from being one little helicopter 40 years ago to now an operation of two twin-engine helicopters across two bases covering almost the length of the state’s coastline. Our long history has been in the area of aquatic search and rescue. We train constantly for the surf environment and our bases are strategically positioned along the coast as that’s what we do and do really well. ” Westpac Lifesaver moved into its purpose-built rescue base in December 2006 to make way for a residential development at the old Prince Henry Hospital site, not too far from its current base and the notorious Long Bay Jail. With BK117‑850D2, VH‑SLU, Lifesaver 1, on standby for a rapid departure, one of the busiest coastlines in the country runs just a few hundred metres from Lifesaver Base. Normal area of operations

When the Ambulance contract was awarded to another provider initially it really hurt.

for Westpac Lifesaver in Sydney extends from the Central Coast down to Nowra, while for its south coast service the area extends from Nowra down to the Victorian border and beyond.

“But you will find our helicopters all throughout the state,” explains Leahy. “In the last 18 months both of our machines have been tasked state-wide to a number of natural disasters and search and rescues. Because that’s what we can now do when not limited by boundaries, so it works really well for us. ” In recent years Westpac Lifesaver has evolved to again become a traditional search and rescue service. Considered by the New South Wales Minister for Police and Emergency Services as an integral part of the New South Wales emergency management framework, Leahy said: “You will likely find us working over the ocean as much as up in the Blue Mountains or in the Snowy Mountains. For urgent tasking where someone needs a helicopter right now, if someone’s caught in a rip, we will always operate in the coastal area. But in a major or a prolonged event we could end up going anywhere. As a result our training has changed because of that. And yes, we’ll still go out and do our water winching training, but we do as much training now in the bush. ” On New South Wales’s far south coast, Westpac Lifesaver operates from a humble hangar at Moruya Airport within the Eurobodalla Shire. There, BK117 B2 VH‑SLA Lifesaver 3, the service’s original and oldest BK, is a relatively new resident on the coast. Set up initially as a summer operation only, the south coast service commenced operations in December 2010 with local emergency services, the community and the state government keen to have a search and rescue helicopter capability permanently on the far south coast of the state.

While nearly all of Sydney’s city beaches are well patrolled every day of the year, further south it’s a different story. Lifeguard services are sparse and seasonal and this is where a lot of Lifesaver’s work now comes from. Leahy says two years ago the south coast and far south coast were identified as black spots for drownings. “There were more drownings in that region than in any other part of the state. Providing a dedicated, rapid and responsive helicopter service just adds value. Surf lifesavers down there beefed up their call-out and response capabilities as well. And now, the number of drownings down there has drastically reduced. In fact I don’t think we even saw a drowning down there this summer. ” The Moruya base has now seen its third summer. Initially receiving funding for the three months of the 2010-2011 summer, Westpac Lifesaver then began operating eight months of the year and is now in operation year-round during daylight hours. “We often say that Sydney has the quantity of the work, but the south coast has the quality as there is no other rapid response search and rescue aircraft down in that part of the world,” said Leahy.

Although the Canberra-based Snowy-Hydro SouthCare looks aftera large portion of the southern part of the state, its aeromedical retrieval aircraft is often performing lengthy inter-hospital medical transfer flights, leaving anyone on the far south coast in need of rescue by helicopter waiting for one available from either Albion Park Airport, Wollongong, or Latrobe Valley Airport in Victoria’s Gippsland region, or beyond. “While we do recognise that Snowy-Hydro SouthCare provides a brilliant service in the region from Canberra, we’re able to get to the coast very, very quickly, stabilise the patient and transfer to a road ambulance, if needed, for SouthCare to retrieve and transport to hospital. ” Oddly, Leahy admits it was a “very quiet summer” for the helicopter rescue service. “The weather this summer was really good for people to go out and enjoy themselves. This time of year though, our coastal work diminishes along our beaches as every single beach has a lifeguard service over the six-week Christmas break. We had very safe surf conditions so that it was good for rock fishermen. In fact we haven’t seen a rock fishing accident in a very long time. Or it was too hot to go outside and do anything with people staying in at home or going shopping in the air-conditioning. While people were going to the beach they weren’t going bushwalking because it was just too hot. ” Historically, the core of Westpac Lifesaver’s work has been in the coastal fringe in aquatic environments. Working very closely with Surf Life Saving New South Wales the helicopter service provides an optimal level of coverage that suits both agencies patrolling beaches where people are swimming a long way from help.

“We undertake an absolute minimum of 75 flight hours per yearfor Surf just doing coastal patrols collectively between both bases, covering more than half the length of the state’s coastline. Traditionally they are called surf patrols but we refer to them as ‘coastal surveillance flights’ because it’s not only looking over the people using our beaches, but it’s where the rock fishermen are, it’s shark patrols, it’s where people are swimming in dangerous areas far outside the red and yellow flags. ” Westpac Lifesaver relays this intelligence to agencies such as Surf Life Saving, the New South Wales Water Police and Marine Rescue, providing them with better situational awareness of what is going on along the coastline.

Whether it’s for the lifesaver on the beach who wants a helicopter to have a look at a potential rip or reassuring swimmers and beachgoers that there is a helicopter above keeping watch, coastal surveillance flights are important missions for Westpac Lifesaver. “From a surf lifesaving perspective the community tell them they feel safe when swimming between the red and yellow flags at a patrolled beach and they feel reassured that if things turn to clay they have a helicopter rescue service that can rescue them rapidly if no-one else can. ” In 1989 the helicopter rescue service obtained an aeromedical retrieval service contract with the Ambulance Service of New South Wales. Then, Lifesaver’s aircraft effectively became flying ambulances and spent much of their time waiting on inner-city hospital helipads rather than flying coastal below 500ft. However, in December 2006, and after 17 years as an asset in the state’s aeromedical retrieval system, the New South Wales state government reviewed its aeromedical services and awarded Canadian-owned CHC Helicopters a state-wide contract. “When the Ambulance contract was awarded to another provider initially it really hurt,” admitted Leahy. “In our first year we only did 50 missions and that’s enough to send anyone stir crazy. What we did lose was the ambulance paramedic onboard and those doctors and paramedics on our aircraft were vital to the work we were doing at the time. ” Then in early 2013, with a reduction in state government funding, Westpac Lifesaver cut services back from being a 24-hour operation to a 10-hour daily service. “That also hurt and we saw several staff redundancies. No-one likes reducing services but we completely understood the financial position of the state. But when you have to have a reduction in service we felt the best option was to lose the night shift. It wasn’t a decision we enjoyed but it was an understandable decision. ” The New South Wales state government does see Westpac Lifesaver’s coastal surveillance flights as an important part of its water safety strategy with funding now good for the next four years. “We’re working closely with them to secure that funding long term, but we’d obviously like to increase that. Even though we had a reduction in funding, part of the renewed agreement with the government was for us to maintain a night capability currency,” added Leahy. “Both our BKs are NVG-capable and within the next few months will begin to operate using this technology when we fly at night. ” Understanding Ambulance’s current decision of the placement of paramedics and doctors on helicopters, Leahy still argues that having an ambulance officer onboard Westpac Lifesaver’s machines would provide a rapid medical response to any incident irrespective of where they go and would reduce duplication of helicopters within the retrieval system.

“We see jobs now where two or three helicopters turn up and in my mind that’s just an awful waste of public money,” said Leahy. “There have been many times where we will go to treat someone and we will just stay there waiting for an ambulance helicopter to arrive. If it was recognised that our aircraft are still viable for providing a primaryresponse, keeping in mind it’s something that we did for many, many years, and nothing has changed, I think there would be some real cost savings made along those lines. ” However, Leahy doesn’t believe that a reform plan for rotary-wing aeromedical retrieval services in New South Wales, due for contract signing later this year, will change any of that. In fact he feels it will solidify it even further. “We have said it publicly that we are not tendering for that contract. Over the last seven years we’ve really worked hard at providing a rapid response search and rescue service and that is not changing which we are quite clear about. If someone asked us ‘How can we make our service better?’, I would say we would like an ambulance paramedic on board. That way the patient we are treating is getting an even better level of care and will get to hospital quicker. And from a more holistic approach we’re not sending two helicopters to the same job, so there’s valuable money to be saved there. ” Leahy says Lifesaver won’t ever be in competition with Ambulance’s helicopters, particularly on the south coast, and is not going to compete with Snowy Hydro SouthCare. “We have a different role, a different function to them and for us it works well. By getting to the patient we can identify early any injuries and prepare them for extraction. That’s again part of the position we hold that by having an ambulance officer onboard our helicopters, particularly with the south coast operation, would provide a more rapid and a better level of patient care than what is currently on offer down there. It’s certainly not to take the work away from other helicopters that work in the region, it’s about providing a more rapid response to the patient, and not necessarily what’s good for the system. ” The experienced crew of Westpac Lifesaver more than underpins the quality of service provided to the community. More than just your average ‘Joe Blow’ surf lifesaver, nearly all of Lifesaver’s down-the-wire crewmen are also highly skilled paramedics, police officers or firefighters. “They are far better qualified and we wanted that when we recruited,” said Leahy. “That’s what we look for when we recruit. Some crew are full-time employees working for the ambulance service, the fire brigade and the Australian Federal Police. Whilst we have excellent aircraft and fantastic bases, our best resources are our staff. There are some that have been working here for over 30 years and have very wise heads on their shoulders. Inter-mixed with the young exuberance of our rescue crewman, the intermingling of intelligence, behavior and experience makes the cabin of our aircraft a really great working environment. ” The Southern Region Westpac Lifesaver is just one of 16 Westpac-sponsored rescue helicopters operating across 12 bases, contributing to the aeromedical and search and rescue system around the country. Depending on where you live, each of these machines have differing roles with some providing medical retrieval services to shark patrols.

“A lot of people think that because you are such an iconic service, are well-known and well supported by Westpac, . . . that the bank owns us,” quips Leahy. “Fundraising in Sydney for any charity is a huge challenge. We are just one of 900 charities in Sydney that the community can donate their money to. ” From fundraising alone, Westpac Lifesaver requires around $3 million

We have selected the type of aircraft but we’re not making that information public at the moment.

in donations per year from the community, on top of the sponsorship from Westpac, to keep operating. “Westpac has been absolutely brilliant to us and there is no way known that we would be here today if they didn’t continue to support us. It really is a partnership and this partnership continues to be the longest continual partnership in Australia’s corporate history. ” Demand for Westpac Lifesaver’s services continue to rise with its operational flight hours and missions steadily increasing year-on-year. In the last financial year alone Westpac Lifesaver flew 588 hours, across 523 missions, using two helicopters – representing a 42 per cent increase in hours flown compared to 2009-2010. “The challenge obviously means that your expenditure and costs are increasing in line with that. To get your income to meet those needs is a massive requirement and that’s one of our biggest challenges. And that’s why we looked at other opportunities like commercial training to enhance our income stream. ” In 2009 Westpac Lifesaver became a Registered Training Organisation and now offers a range of specialty courses utilising the expertise and resources of some of its crew. “We are fairly fortunate as half of our staff are accredited trainers in a range of different skills,” explained Craig Roberts, Westpac Lifesaver’s strategic development manager. “Some of our staff have been here for decades and there is a wealth of knowledge you just can’t buy. It’s about utilising those skills that we have and how to best share it. And in a way it would be silly not to share it around. ” Initially offering helicopter underwater escape training, and running just two courses a year, Roberts said over 200 students now pass through its training academy annually undertaking crew resource management, first aid and emergency care through to incident and crisis management courses. “No one ever gets a bill for the service we provide,” said Roberts. “And that’s one of the reasons why we decided to go into commercial training as it adds additional income to further ensure that we provide a free service to whoever needs to use us. ” With increasing operational hours and an ageing fleet, a fleet replacement strategy has been confirmed by Lifesaver’s board which is working to digest the financial impact a pair of new machines will have on the service. “We have selected the type of aircraft but we’re not making that information public at the moment,” said Leahy. “We are watching very closely the many changes within the CASA legislation and need to see what comes out of the changes before we sign off on the type of aircraft. For the work that we do the BK117 is ideal for getting into tight spaces. Downdraft from bigger and larger machines is a real issue in the coastal environment, both for the patient and the rescue crewman. We don’t have those issues with the BK, plus the floor space for us is adequate for the jobs that we are doing. ” Over the next five to seven years both of Lifesaver’s BK117s will be replaced, with VH-SLA likely the first. The service then intends to enter into a program to change over its aircraft more regularly. “We have had SLA for over 18 years. But they’re both outstanding machines and they still provide everything we need in a rescue helicopter. They’re older technology and old airframes but we have two of the best engineers in the business working on these machines. Although we do all scheduled maintenance we also do a lot of preventative maintenance to make sure these aircraft are flying at their best. ” Mounting a FLIR camera onto a helicopter is a big and costly job, not to mention draggy. This is where Westpac Lifesaver’s Thales hand-held thermal imaging camera has proven to be a vital piece of equipment adding to the capability of the service. “Donated to us by Thales, it’s a fantastic bit of kit,” said Leahy. “It’s usable during the day and night and we even transport it down to the Moruya base before the Sydney to Hobart fleet leaves the heads in case we need it. And knowing that we are going to change out our aircraft in the next couple of years the camera comes into its own for being portable. ” Previously required, under contract, to be airborne within six minutes of a call, Leahy prides the crew with now an even quicker response time. “One of the things we really pride ourselves on is the time from when the ‘Bat phone’ rings to the time we’re lifting off the pad is four minutes. And if you are going to sell yourself as a rapid response rescue service you’ve got to be just that. ” Growing from a service that was doing 50 missions a year with no particular vision to a service that really has cemented its position within the emergency services system, Leahy is confident Westpac Lifesaver Southern Region will be around for another 40 years to come. “Like many organisations we’ve have had our share of moments and hurdles throughout our 40 year history. With the support of Westpac, the community and the government, we continue to get over those hurdles and meet the financial cost of maintaining our service. Flying between the flags – that’s what it started out as 40 years ago, but now the flags have gotten wider stretching almost from state border to state border. ”