On flying days a pilot, aircrew and rescue swimmer arrive at the Busselton Margaret River Airport at 7am to prepare the Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter before it takes off for duty.
The crew fly out on a two hour journey between 9am and 10am heading anywhere from Bunbury to Redgate, they return to base and refuel before heading out again for the afternoon.
With three sets of eyes in the sky, the crew monitor the surf conditions around the South West and look for sharks close to shore or people who might be caught in a rip.
Aircrew Matt Wenman said when the rescue swimmer boards the chopper, he is kitted out in a wetsuit and flotation devices in case he needs to be winched into the surf to rescue someone caught in a rip.
“If we get a call from the water police we can go and assist in a limited capacity, we can come in low then kick the swimmer out with a rescue tube, then we land on the beach and pick him up.,” Mr Wenman said.
Part of their job forms part of the state governments shark mitigation program, when they spot a shark they record the size, how far away from shore it is and the direction it is travelling.
The crew contact a communications team in Perth, which sends out the information to agencies, which send out an alert to the public.
“If we spot a shark which is near the public we will come down low and sound the siren,” he said.
“There could be surfers and swimmers 300 metres up the beach, we will sit over the shark and sound the siren so people up and down the beach are aware.
“It might not be a threat but it is good for people in the water to look up and see us circling to let them know there is a shark.
“The community love us down here, when you see something near the public and you sound a siren then move onto the next beach we get a lot of thumbs up and people waving at us.”
Mr Wenman has been in the aviation industry for 26 years working as aircrew, which he described as being like a mission control room in the sky.
“With three in the aircraft, it is like having a multi-skilled set, in the early days a pilot would make the decisions, now with three of us on board we all make that decision to do a job or not do a job,” he said.
“We have crew resource management which allows each person to speak their mind, which is good especially in an aviation environment.
"It is all well and good flying around when it is beautiful weather but when it turns a bit pear shaped and the conditions are not that great it does get a bit tense.”
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Margaret River Mail
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