Helicopter pilot who saved 28 lives during flash flooding in Grantham calls for greater funding for helicopter rescue
Residents evacuated from Grantham earlier this year as Queensland experienced the worst floods in 100 years
A HELICOPTER pilot who saved 28 lives during the horrendous flash flooding of the Lockyer Valley town of Grantham has urged governments to upgrade Queensland's helicopter fleet, arguing saving lives is more important than money.
Giving evidence before Floods Commissioner Cate Holmes in Toowoomba this afternoon, captain Mark Kempton urged the Bligh government to commit approximately $600,000 per machine to increase the carrying capacity of Emergency Management Queenslands helicopters.
Captain Kempton told the inquiry that EMQ helicopter crews saved 43 lives on January 10 and 11, when an 8m wall of water crashed through the Lockyer Valley killing at least 17 local men, women and children.
"I would defy any person to stand in front of me and say that someone they knew is not worth the $30m that it might cost to run a helicopter operation," he said outside the inquiry.
"A life is worth every single cent that you would have to spend to save it."
Captain Kempton said he wanted the helicopters' carrying capacities upgraded from 6.4 tons to 6.8, at a projected cost of $600,000 per aircraft.
He said the upgrade would allow an aircraft to carry more crew, a diverse range of equipment or additional fuel to increase its operational time.
Mr Kempton recounted how distressed locals, stranded on the roofs of collapsing buildings, refused to be rescued. Instead, they pointed in the direction of their fellow citizens who were caught up trees or struggling in the roaring floodwaters.
"The Aussie spirit was just incredible there," he said.
"You had people who had lost everything, their homes, they were sitting on the remnants on buildings in some cases and as we came towards them to pick them up they were literally saying 'No, not me. You've got to get that person over there'."
In saving the 28 residents, Captain Kempton's crew braved sheet lightning and cloud cover that wrapped their helicopter in "a white cocoon".
The inquiry will continue this afternoon with evidence from Grantham woman Sarah Norman, whose mother and father were swept to their deaths on January 10.
Helicopter pilot who saved 28 lives during flash flooding in Grantham calls for greater funding for helicopter rescue | The Australian