Mark Whitehouse, Coastguard Operations Manager says “From my perspective as exercise director the exercise was a resounding success and helps reinforce how well all the search and rescue agencies work together to reach a common goal of saving lives”.

Mr Whitehouse said that this was as far as he was aware the first time that a Search & Rescue Exercise (SAREX) of this nature run in Queenstown involving the numerous search & rescue agencies.

The scenario was a realistic one in that a Helicopter took off around 7am on Saturday hoping for a break in low fog around the area (notational weather) so he could drop some fishermen on one of the local rivers.  At 0800 the helicopter company reported the aircraft missing to the Police who are confirming various details passed on Lead Agency to the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) who are responsible for this type of incident.

There was notational fog in the area so air assets could not be used in the search.

Working with the RCCNZ the NZ Police tasked various Search and Rescue Agencies i.e. Coastguard Queenstown, Coastguard Clyde, Wanaka Marine Search and Rescue and the Local Land SAR units to assist them in the search for Helicopter. 50 Volunteers in all were involved including 2 Coastguard Rescue Vessels and 3 civilian vessels from the Wanaka Marine Search and Rescue Unit.

An Incident Control Point was set up at Queenstown Police station with members from all the agencies working together in the Incident Management Team (IMT) to coordinate and manage the search for the missing Helicopter.

As more information came (not all of which was correct) into the IMT an Incident Action Plan was drawn looking at the most probable scenarios that could have happened and using limited coverage from communications in the area tasking was relayed to the Coastguard and other rescue vessels on the water and SAR teams on the ground.

Marine assests were used to search the water and shore line and were possible LandSAR teams were taxied over to areas to search on land.

After 5 hours of searching the ‘missing’ helicopter was found and its occupants were located around Pigeon Island on Lake Waktipu.  LandSAR used a tracking dog to locate the last person and the mission was complete around 1600 hrs. Some of the vessels  traveled over 100 Nautical Miles over a period of 8 hours during the search.

The main issue everyone had to deal with during the exercise was the very poor communications in the area and the possibility of obtaining  more VHF repeaters in the area will be considered.

NZ Police then laid on a BBQ for all participants and following a debrief and much networking all agencies returned safely home after a job well done.

Congratulations to the Coastguard Riverton volunteers who were winners of the Health & Wellbeing Award at the TrustPower Community Awards on 22 November.   Nominated by Sport Southland who’s Coaching Manager, Paul Westbury, said “Everyone involved in the awards feels that recognising and thanking your wonderful team is long overdue and Sport Southland is pleased to see your team receive the accolades you all fully deserve.

Your team are doing such a great job and have done so for a considerable period of time due in no small part to all of the dedicated practice hours they put in.

Last night’s award was very insignificant compared to the great effort your team makes for the benefit of our Southland people in tough situations.”

Coastguard Riverton Volunteers gave 4,571 hours of service to their community last year,  undertook 9 Police initiated  search and rescue operations and 11 Coastguard assistance missions rescuing 30 people.

Central Otago is about as far from the cost as you can get in this country but volunteers provide a Coastguard services which now has a new home in Clyde.

Coastguard Clyde is one of aonly a handful of inland Coastguard unit in the country.  It was established in 2004, gained a rescue vessel in 2006 and officially opened it’s new purpose built base on Saturday 30th October.

The building, next to the Department of Conservations Otago Rural Fire Centre near Clyde, represented another milestone for the Clyde unit, president Tony Smith said.

Until the building was constructed, DOC had made room available in one of its sheds at the rural fire centre for the Coastguard Rescue Vessel.  DOC has also provided the land for the new headquarters free of charge.

“We’re very supportive of these organisations that provide services which allow people to enjoy places safely” DOC Central Otago area manager Mike Tubbs said.

About 40 people attended the official opening of the building including DOC staff, fire service and St John volunteers, search and rescue personnel and Coastguard Queenstown volunteers.

“Five years ago, I never dreamed we’d be here today with a building of our own,” Mr Smith said.  It was a real privilege to work with the 13 volunteers in the group and he thanked the men’s families for their support.  He was also grateful to DOC for its support.

The building cost $55,000 and grants were received from the NZ Community Trust, Otago Community Trust, Pub Charity and Alexandra Lions Club.

Mr Smith said volunteers also devoted a lot of time to off water activities such as water safety training and education.  Many of the units call-outs involved people walking tracks around the river and lakes, who fell and injured themselves.  Locating those people and transporting them on water was often easier than a land rescue.

The next goal for the Unit is to raise funds to purchase a 4WD vehicle to tow the rescue boat as they were currently reliant on member vehicles being available.

Abridged from Otago Daily Times