Capricorn Rescue Loses Yet Another Helo
Rescue Helicopter Crew Rescued
Two crewmen of a Bell 407 rescue helicopter ended up being rescued themselves by a Brisbane-based Queensland Emergency Service helicopter the morning after their helicopter crashed into the sea.
The Rockhampton-based Capricorn Rescue Helicopter Bell 407 crashed at night and in bad weather while attempting to assist two men from a Malaysian yacht, which got into difficulty near the Swain Reefs, about 120 nautical miles off the central Queensland coast. The crew and yacht’s survivors spent several hours in life rafts before being winched to safety by the QES helicopter and flown to Gladstone. They suffered only minor injuries.
The Bell 407 helicopter had entered service about two months prior to the accident; a replacement for the Rescue Service’s Bell Longranger that was lost in an accident in which three crew members and two passengers were killed when it crashed near Marlborough last year.