Amalgamated Helicopters News Archive 
14/11/2011 Last gasp rescue from Wairarapa seas. Written by Nathan Crombie, Nov 14, Wairarapa Times-Age
A man swept from the reef at Castlepoint Beach was hauled bleeding and exhausted from huge seas after battling for an hour to reach the shore on Saturday. Rescue boats could not reach the 23-year-old man from Nelson, who had been eventually carried by the tide through The Gap in the reef, where a pair of onlookers dived into the frigid lagoon waters to help him ashore.
A crowd of up to 50 people joined firefighters, paramedics and police about 2pm on Saturday to watch from shore as two fishing vessels braved "nasty" swells in attempts to pluck the man to safety, said Castlepoint volunteer fire chief Anders Crofoot. "It was too dangerous for the boats to get too close to the reef but what they did was amazing all the same. Police called a helicopter because for a while it looked like it was going to be a search as opposed to a rescue," Mr Crofoot said.
Rescuer Lawson Campbell, a Masterton teacher, had been watching the drama unfold alongside Castlepoint woman Louise Oakly and others at the southern end of the beach near The Gap. Soon after arriving at the spot the pair spied the man's head bobbing in large waves beyond the lagoon, Mr Campbell said. "The guy raised both arms, signalling for help. When we got to him he was frozen like an ice block. He'd been out there for at least an hour and he was cold, really cold," he said. The man had been with two friends when he was swept from the reef, Mr Campbell said, and both had screamed for him to head seaward and not risk being dashed against the rocks. "He did everything he was meant to do. He swam out to sea not in toward the reef and he didn't stop fighting. That guy saved his own life," Mr Campbell said. "He was dazed and very, very exhausted but really glad to have his feet back on the ground." Ms Oakly said the waves were breaking about 5m above the reef when she saw the man struggling to stay with the incoming tide. "I stripped off and ran into the water. When I got to him, he made a joke about going back out and getting his Doc Marten boots - he'd thrown them off with all his clothes. "He was bleeding from cuts all over - his arms, legs, his ribcage - but he made it. I really thought he was a goner."
An off-duty paramedic treated the man at the scene for hypothermia and gashes to his hands, arms, body and legs before he was bundled into several sleeping bags and taken to a waiting ambulance.
4/05/2011 Police warn trampers to be prepared before heading into bush
Police are warning trampers to be prepared, well-equipped and sensible when it comes to heading into the outdoors at this time of the year, following a search which concluded yesterday afternoon. Search and Rescue Coordinator Sergeant Peter Rix of Masterton Police says on Tuesday 26 April, Police became concerned about the whereabouts and safety of a 24 year old man who had reportedly set out with his mountain bike intending to make a southern crossing of the Tararua Mountain Range. "On Wednesday, the missing man made contact with us via cellphone. He was in a distressed and hypothermic state, uncertain of his exact location. Due to extremely bad weather conditions, rescuers were unable to be flown to where they suspected the man might be, instead being dropped off in a riverbed some hours away." Sergeant Rix says a team of two Police and two Land Search and Rescue (Land SAR) volunteers located the missing man extremely cold and tired, having spent one night in the open and without any food for forty hours. After assessing his condition he was helped to the closest hut where he and the rescuers spent the night before being flown out yesterday afternoon. "This search highlights the need for trampers to be well prepared and equipped for the conditions. This man's gear was barely adequate for the conditions, setting out when a severe southerly storm had been forecast." "It was extremely lucky that this search has had a happy ending. Given the weather conditions and his state when rescued, the situation could have been much different if the rescue crew didn't get to him as quickly as they did." Sergeant Rix says whilst the man had made some good decisions once he had become lost, better planning, research, and equipment would have avoided the need for such a difficult and costly rescue.
13/03/2008 Trout fisherman airlifted after fall
Wairarapa Times-Age Thursday, March 13, 2008
A Featherston man was airlifted form the Tararua Rangers after injuring his shoulder in a fall yesterday afternoon. Wairarapa Ambulance Service manager Shaun Camp said the man was airlifted aboard a Carterton based Amalgamated Helicopters machine form the Tutuwai Hut in the Tauherenikau River valley soon after 3pm yesterday. The man, 44, had been trout fishing and was treated at the scene for a shoulder injury he received in a fall before he was flown to Wairarapa Hospital for further treatment, Mr Camp said.
27 February 2008 Volunteers refurbish Dorset Ridge Hut in the Tararuas
A group of volunteers have worked hard over the past month to transform the Department of Conservation’s Dorset Ridge Hut in the Tararua Forest Park. A building crew from Horowhenua and Wairarapa teamed up with local business Amalgamated Helicopters to upgrade the hut's facilities, replacing everything from the kitchen bench to the fireplace. DOC programme manager visitor assets Garry Foster is “delighted” with the result.“The volunteers - Graham Wilton, Dave McLean, Allan and Marilyn Day, Maria Clement, Dave Simmons and Cody Delacroix - worked very hard and their transformation of the hut is immense.”They also installed a new toilet, engaging some kiwi ingenuity to capture rain water to use for washing hands. And they constructed a new porch complete with solar lights.” Amalgamated Helicopters went over and above the call of duty by flying all the loads of equipment and people required to complete the project free of charge. “That's huge, they've been extremely generous”, Mr Foster said.
The project was made possible with funding from the Wellington region Huts Committee. Set up more than 15 years ago the Huts Committee, supported by the Department of Conservation, helps to maintain non-core huts within the Wellington region including structures in the Tararua, Rimutaka and Forest Parks. They organise materials and volunteers to help keep huts in good conditions for visitors.“We have a number of huts in isolated areas and maintaining them is difficult and costly,” Garry Foster said. “Having a community group transform Dorset Ridge Hut means that its future is guaranteed and that’s really exciting. We really appreciate the support of the different recreational groups that help maintain the network of visitor facilities on conservation land in our area and would like to say a big thank you in particular to all those involved in the Dorset Ridge project.” TO SEE MORE ON THIS PROJECT GO TO OUR DORSET HUT RESTORATION PAGE HERE...
27/02/2008 Hinakura inferno wipes out 25ha of pine forest
Wairarapa Times-age Article 27.02.08 by Jo Mior
Fourteen fire crews and four helicopters fought a pine forest inferno into the night
yesterday that left at least 25 hectares of trees destroyed and a firefighter injured.
About 90,000 three-year-old pine trees were
destroyed in a summer blaze eight years ago at the same Kaikuri Station site where the fire broke out yesterday about 4.30am, station
trustee Mike Treadwell said yesterday.
“It was just deja vu driving over from
“More than
anything I was relieved to get here and see all the fire crews and the helicopters in the air,” he said.
A Hinakura neighbour
passing by the station at 5am yesterday noticed the hill blaze and contacted the farm manager, who rung the fire service, Mr Treadwell said.
“I got a call about 5.30am from the farm manager’s wife and by the time I got over from Wellington it was all go.
I knew where the fire was, which is a similar area to the fire we had eight years ago, so I was probably expecting it to be just as
bad and had visions of that fire in my mind.
“It wasn’t a pleasant drive over here,” he said.
Fire crews
from Martinborough, Carterton, Lake Ferry, Ngawi and Rimutaka stations as well as two water tankers and a fire command unit set up base
next to the river, bordering Kaikuri Station, and local farmers and civil defence came to the rescue with food and water.
A
Gisborne-based helicopter was called in at 7am to assist the two local Amalgamated Helicopters and one from Helipro, which had been in
the air since shortly after 6am, said Martinborough fire chief Garry Jackson.
Yesterday’s emergency was the most intense and
gruelling fire fighting some of the volunteer crew had experienced, he said.
“It’s steep climbing up there and one of
the main things is to make sure all the guys get plenty of breaks and stay watered.
“It’s some of the hardest work
these guys have done and one of our Martinborough guys has already been taken to the doctors with cracked ribs after falling over out
there.”
Mr Jackson said the response from Hinakura neighbours with refreshments and assisting fire crews with hoses and
directions was typical of the community spirit in most rural areas.
“They got down here early and started up the barbeque
and the civil defence has also been superb providing everything the boys need before they get up and get going again.”
Mr Jackson said yesterday’s fire was the 24th since New Year, compared with only nine callouts at this time last year.
“The fire restrictions started a lot earlier this year and now we’ve got a total ban which keeps things under control
a bit but every now and then you get a big one like this breaking out.”
A Johnsonville crew spent yesterday covering
the Martinborough station, while Wairarapa crews expected to spend most of the day at Hinakura, he said.
Mr Treadwell, a trustee
of WN Pharazyn charitable trust, who owns Kaikuri Station, said the pine plantation was fully insured.
“It’s a setback
for us and it’s not easy to replant because you have to chop everything down and even the stuff that looks okay is usually damaged
in some way.”
16/02/2008 Almost Rescue on Lake
A dinghy carrying a Wairarapa father and his three children narrowly avoided a helicopter rescue when they got into trouble in high seas at Western lake on Saturday. The family, who were checking a net in the lake, made it back to shore safely without any help from search and rescue despite the strong winds at the time. Masterton police Senior Sergeant Warwick Burr said a Western Lake resident called police when she noticed the dinghy having trouble in the high swells and a local Helicopter pilot took flight, expecting a rescue. “At the time the conditions were bad enough to cause concern and hence that was why a local helicopter went into the air” The search and rescue helicopter was also put on standby but didn’t take flight, he said. The rescue call was made at 11am and by midday the dinghy was safely back on shore.
12/02/2008 Dam water used to douse fire
Water worries hampered firefighters on Te Parae Road, Masterton, yesterday as they battled a bushfire at Te Parae while trucks ferried water several kilometres. A helicopter fetched water from a nearby dam to douse the fire, which may have been caused by a fallen power line, while firetrucks pumped from two other nearby dams or ferried from Wainuioru. "The dams are very low. Water is a concern," principal rural fire officer Phill Wishnowsky said at the scene. "We have to make the best use of the water we can get hold of." He said firefighters were "making progress" containing the fire in a pine tree plantation, with 28 men on the ground initially, including professional firefighters and rural volunteers. Electricity workers were also at the scene preparing to restore power to the areaIn the early evening, a tanker from Juken New Zealand Ltd was despatched to the scene.
3/02/2008 Story Published in Wairarapa Times Age
By Gerald Ford
A helicopter dampens a grass fire that threatened baches at the mouth of the
Whareama River on Saturday, one of a record number of rural fire callouts this year. – Photo supplied by Amalgamated Helicopters.
Mowed and watered lawns saved holiday baches at the mouth of the Whareama River from a runaway grass fire at the weekend on the eve of a
total fire ban for the region. Wairarapa principal rural fire officer Phill
Wishnowsky said the cause of the fire on Saturday was unknown and that the baches were unoccupied when the blaze broke out.
Jason Diedrichs, Amalgamated Helicopters owner and pilot, said he spent several
hours dumping water from a monsoon bucket on areas left scorched by the blaze. We were mainly required to dampen down places where
firefighters had already put the fire out. The fire certainly got close to the baches but it was fortunate the lawns were tended and the
flames stopped there.” Mr Wishnowsky said a total rural fire ban is in force
in Wairarapa from today after dry weather and wind have created a record rural fire season with two-and-a-half times the callouts of two
years ago. The ban prohibits any open-air fires in rural Masterton, Carterton and
South Wairarapa .Rural fire callouts increased by 68 percent in the year to April 30, 2007, and are on track to increase another 58 percent
or more than 500 callouts, according to statistics from the Wairarapa rural fire district.
“Already in 2008 we have had a record number of rural fire incidents and it looks like this will continue for some time yet,” Mr Wishnowsky said.
He said dry weather especially in the past 24 months was one factor in the increase, but there was also more public awareness in reporting fires and more involvement in non-fire events, like car crashes and medical emergencies.
More power-line related fires were also a factor, especially in Wairarapa.
“Every time the wind starts to blow, we cringe.”
Mr Wishnowsky said firefighters have been doing a “fantastic job”, with wind making things “even more difficult and dangerous”. He said rural fire crews were always looking for volunteers, and noted
that many of the existing volunteers lived rurally but work away from their home area during the day. Rural people can do their part to
lower fire risk by keeping roadside grass short, clearing long grass and dry plants away from buildings, and keeping roads and driveways
clear for fire engines. Rural properties should also be clearly numbered and
identified.
27/11/2007 Story published Wairarapa Times-Age
A helicopter was called to search for a missing two-year-old boy on a Langdale Roadproperty on Friday. Police were called at 3.30pm and were told the child had wandered away from the rural property and hadn't been seen for around 20 minutes. A police and civilian search were sent to the area and a helicopter was sent up to help search because of the dense scrub in the surrounding area. The boy was located safe and well at 5pm around one kilometre from the house.
26/11/2007 Story published Wairarapa Times-Age
By Nathan Crombie
An elderly South Wairarapa man was found dead in a police search involving boats and a helicopter after he disappeared while whitebaiting on the Ruamahunga River yesterday afternoon. Senior constable Tony Matheson said the man, 86, was reported missing about 1.30pm from a location at Puhitarata about 7km upstream from the river mouth at Lake Ferry . He said the man was whitebaiting with a group of friends who joined a police search launched a half an hour later that scoured the riverbank and also involved a helicopter and searchers on jet skis. Police officers found the man deceased near where he was last seen, Mr Matheson said. Amalgamated Helicopters director and pilot Jason Diedrichs said he joined the search about 3pm although the missing man was found within an hour of the Carterton-based machine taking to the air. “We scanned up and down the river several times but then got the radio call that the man had been found by searchers on the ground.” The incident has been referred to the coroner as a sudden death, Mr Matheson said, and his name has not yet been released.
31/10/2007 AHNZL help fight forest fire
A BUSH fire at Waiohine Gorge on Monday is a bad omen for summer, Wairarapa principal rural fire officer Phil Wishnowsky said yesterday,
in a year of low rainfall where the Fire Service did not have an off-season. An estimated 2ha of corsica pine was destroyed
by a fire which began in scrub on Department of Conservation land yesterday afternoon.
Fifteen Carterton firefighters battled
for four hours from 4pm, getting the blaze under control with the help of a helicopter and monsoon bucket, and staff from the Department
of Conservation and forestry group PF Olsen worked into the night dampening down hotspots.
Carterton fire chief Wayne Robinson said three fire trucks were sent to the fire. One pumped water from the Waiohine River about 500m from the fire, and the others ferried the water to the fire site, where firefighters used their hoses to fill the helicopter monsoon bucket. Mr Wishnowsky said the fire started in lush green grass but was fanned by a steady wind and there was enough "old, dead fuel" around to keep it going.
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13/10/2007 Amalgamated Helicopters in tramper's rescue
Rescuers have successfully responded to two emergency radio beacon alerts less than 24 hours apart, with the latest response resulting in the speedy rescue of a tramper in the Tararua ranges today. Just as Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) staff were wrapping up a successful search for the source of an emergency radio beacon discovered in a lost backpack near the Hollyford track, they were also busy coordinating the rescue of a tramper who set off his emergency beacon in the Tararua ranges about 10am today.
Mike Phethean of Wellington (age unknown) was flown by an Amalgamated Helicopters pilot to Masterton for treatment, after suffering from an eye infection while tramping on a ridge in the Tararuas about 18km east of Levin. His beacon was detected by an overflying aircraft just before 10am, and reported to RCCNZ, who had also picked up the beacon alert via satellite, and immediately dispatched the helicopter into the area to rescue him. He was picked up by the helicopter at 1 noon. RCCNZ Search and Rescue officer John Dickson said Mr Phethean's rescue had been carried out in difficult conditions, with low cloud and poor visibility making flying difficult. A Police-led land-based search and rescue team had also been on standby if the helicopter hadn't been able to locate him.
"While the two alerts so close together have made for a busy 24 hours, the latest incident in particular has highlighted how effective beacons can be in alerting rescuers to those who may be in difficulty," Mr Dickson said. "Carrying an emergency beacon - particularly the newer 406 Megahertz type beacon - is an excellent safety precaution which can help speed up the rescue response, and we encourage anyone who maybe going into the bush, out on the water or operating an aircraft to carry one."