Opposition reiterate call for Mid West rescue helicopter after cruise ship airlift off Geraldton

The Opposition has reiterated calls for a rescue helicopter to be based in the Mid West, in the wake of a 66-year-old woman in a critical condition being airlifted off a cruise ship off Geraldton last week. The Nationals made an election promise ahead of the 2021 election that it would introduce a Geraldton-based rescue helicopter under the Royalties for Regions program, as well as upgrades to Geraldton Airport and a construction of a landing pad at the Geraldton Hospital. Shadow emergency services minister Martin Aldridge last week said the Mid West was “the obvious highest priority to establish a third rescue helicopter, and is the largest population area in WA not to be covered by a rescue chopper.” “With increasing demand for such services as a result of road trauma and natural disasters, such as we are seeing in the Kimberley, it is critical that we reinforce our emergency services by basing this third rescue helicopter in Geraldton – not mothballing it in a hanger in Perth,” he said. Mr Aldridge said almost 3000 signed a petition in 2020 calling on the State Government to implement a Mid West emergency rescue helicopter service. On Friday the RAC Rescue Helicopter was sent from Perth to winch a sick passenger off the cruise ship AIDAmar, 140km off the Geraldton coast. The woman is in a critical, but stable, condition in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. The woman had been experiencing a medical emergency, with the ship issuing a call for help earlier in the day. The RAC chopper was sent from Jandakot and just managed to airlift the woman off the ship before last light. The mission took a total of five hours and 40 minutes. The woman was taken to Geraldton Health Campus before the Royal Flying Doctor Service took her to Perth.