Meet our high-flying first responders

When someone’s in trouble in Australia’s rugged wilderness or wild oceans, first responders put their own lives on the line to get there. The Weekly salutes our rescue chopper crews.

- GENEVIEVE GANNON 

Often, the most dangerous moment in a drowning rescue is when the valiant red and yellow chopper appears on the horizon, and the terrified person it is racing towards thinks they can stop fighting. Their feet have been thrashing in the ocean for far too long. They are numb from the cold. Their lungs ache, and they have nothing left in the tank. Rescue aircraft officer Geoff Jansen says you can literally see their urgency drain away when they know help is near. “You see them getting pummelled around, their adrenalin is so high, then you get there and all of a sudden they relax. That’s when you start to see that initial …” he mimes someone sinking below the surface. “They’re just fatigued, absolutely fatigued, and all of a sudden you’ve got to get into the water straight away.”