Goodbye Charlie

End of an era for the Snowy Hydro SouthCare Rescue

Late in the afternoon on April 1 the Canberra-based Snowy Hydro SouthCare Rescue Helicopter Service made its final life-saving flight. The mission, using SouthCare’s blue, white and green Bell 412 ‘classic’ VH-NSC, known affectionately as ‘Charlie’, brought to a close an 18-year career for what was a visual and audible icon in the ACT and southern NSW.

The primary response by the crew of ‘SouthCare 1’ was to a male motorcycle rider who had come off his bike on a dirt trail in the Brindabella Mountains, west of Canberra. Transporting him in a stable condition to The Canberra Hospital, the rescue was a routine one. Yet the mission, the last of more than 8,000 flown by Snowy Hydro SouthCare, officially marked the end of a helicopter rescue service that was passionately supported by the local community to a level some major sporting teams would envy.