New data by LifeFlight’s aeromedical jet fleet shows the number of people helped rose by 100 percent in the past financial year. The jets, based in Brisbane, Townsville and Singapore, helped a total of 948 people for the 12 months to June 30 – double the number for FY23.
The Townsville crew contributed to a record financial year for LifeFlight Australia as a whole, with the LifeFlight helicopters, air ambulance jets, critical care doctors, flight nurses and Queensland Ambulance Service flight paramedics, helping 8,177 people – a 11.2 percent increase on the previous year.
The Townsville base is celebrating its 15th year in operation and crews completed numerous international missions, which included helping to save the life of Australian surfing identity Mark Richardson, who was flown from Bali to Darwin following complications from a stomach ulcer which left him with severe internal bleeding.
Across its Townsville and Brisbane fixed wing bases, LifeFlight helped 850 people in FY24, a massive 79 percent increase on the past year.
LifeFlight’s Singapore-based air ambulance also had a busy year, airlifting 98 people. It included evacuating Keith Davis and Kerry Jordan from Bangkok to Australia in May after they were injured when their Singapore Airlines flight was hit by severe turbulence.
LifeFlight General Manager Commercial Partnerships Tyson Smith, said the jets provide wide-scale coverage from Townsville, Brisbane and Singapore bases, extending the network over two continents. “The financial year results – with people helped up 100 percent across our jet bases in Brisbane, Townsville and Singapore – was driven by strong domestic demand and an increase in international repatriation missions,” he said. “We’re one of a few aeromedical providers with integrated bases on two continents. Through our Townsville jet we can deploy quickly to the far north or Central Queensland so we can bring patients back to major airports and hospitals. Our air ambulance crews also play a key role retrieving Australians who become seriously ill and injured overseas as can be seen from the Keith Davis and Mark Richardson cases, which used our Challenger 604 jets and highly skilled intensive care medical teams and pilots.”
LifeFlight Australia Medical Director Dr Jeff Hooper, said the organisation continued to lead the way in the aeromedical sector with world-leading standards of care. “Our teams have the specialist emergency medicine skills required to provide the best available treatment to people even while operating 30,000 feet above the ground. Our highly skilled intensive care medical teams and pilots, and their rapid aeromedical intervention can often be the difference between life and death. That’s why our work is so important to people living in regional Queensland and abroad.”
Since taking to the skies 45 years ago LifeFlight has helped close to 90,000 people.
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