Thread: Who supports the Rescue Helicopter

LETTER SENT TO MANAGER OF OTAGO RESCUE HELICOPTER TRUST - 29 Sept. 2016

This was copied to me and is posted here with the author's permission.

"Dear Mr. Franklin,

I am a 65 yr old outdoorsman with six adult children, all of whom donate to the Rescue Helicopter Trusts all over New Zealand, as I have instilled in them the absolute need to support such a service. I also was in Search and Rescue for 25 years.

As you no doubt realize, if public funding was not there such a service could not continue, but to endanger the users of your service by coating the inside and outside of a Rescue machine with toxic 1080 dust is suicide I believe !

"Can’t happen" you say? Well listen to this :

Some 15 years ago at the local Omaka airport I had a friend (Ernest Wooding) who was grazing sheep each night on the runway and overnight parking area, with the Authority's blessing.

A visiting plane had been dropping 1080 carrot bait on Molesworth (I believe) and parked overnight on the grass next to the hangar.

The owner had left really early and when Ernest went to shift his sheep he found at least a dozen ewes dead around the plane's park and several other sick sheep, all of which had a green dye in their wool. He contacted the local authorities and ascertained that the plane had not been thoroughly cleaned and that there was nothing they could do about it as it had gone !

He tried to lay charges and recover his losses (all ewes sub-lethally poisoned eventually aborted their lambs too ) but was unsuccessful.

This was all printed in the local paper as well !

I put it to you that this dust is all through the inside and outside of this machine and that it would be impossible to clean every minute surface (especially inside the machine, under seats, lockers, engine cavity etc), and that by not doing so you are endangering the General Public.

I have observed several aerial 1080 operations and you cannot tell me that dust does not go everywhere. ( I have heaps of video and stills showing it. )

And I know of two guys ( both deceased very prematurely ) who never wore protection when filling hoppers, mixing carrot bait etc.

I can also name four people who have serious health issues after being accidentally overflown by hoppers dispensing 1080.

I would appreciate your justifying this use of the Rescue Helicopter and explaining just how the machine cannot be contaminated !

Sincerely,

Lloyd Hanson "

Photo by Carol Sawyer - HeliOtago BK117 ( part of air ambulance fleet ) at Manapouri, Kepler Mountains 1080 operation , September, 2016

Cheers @kawekakid.
We contribute from the miniature stipend called the pension to Lifeflight, should the need to use this service ever arise for one of us - most likely me.
This has always been my 'bone of contention' over the continued use of 1080 and the unregulated 'after effects' of accidental contamination of pasture, streams and rivers. While there are others on the forum who accept that 'independent studies' have been unable to confirm secondary, tertiary or quadrenary kills on other wildlife (other than the 'targeted species'), I suggest that the organisation/Gov't Dept funding the research, be taken into account.
As the research unit is always looking to find funding of any kind, for other, more beneficial research, they have an 'unconscious' bias to find in favour of the funding organisation.
Thus - any expert opinion/independent research - is always going to have this unwanted but unpleasant side effect of 'giving the client what they paid for' - i.e. please make our product/practise/methodology look good.

Well, if the helicopter is contaminated, the first person who is going to suffer that contamination is the pilot . I guess there would be an official log book of how many hours have been flown by the machine and who was at the controls? It would be interesting to actually get some blood samples of that pilot tested in another country independent laboratory , so that the nz gvt does not influence the results.
Also do the pilots and people working around 1080 have a clause of non disclosure in their contract?

Originally Posted by Friwi

Well, if the helicopter is contaminated, the first person who is going to suffer that contamination is the pilot . I guess there would be an official log book of how many hours have been flown by the machine and who was at the controls? It would be interesting to actually get some blood samples of that pilot tested in another country independent laboratory , so that the nz gvt does not influence the results.
Also do the pilots and people working around 1080 have a clause of non disclosure in their contract?

Now that is what I call paranoid.

sorry but i think im missing something do they use the rescue helicopter for dropping 1080

It's alright they hose it out afterwards!

Lol. I'd be more worried about some of those posting on here and their meth addition than a little bit of 1080 cross contamination.

meth not included in photo

Originally Posted by northdude

sorry but i think im missing something do they use the rescue helicopter for dropping 1080

Generally, the various Rescue Trusts around the country don't own their own aircraft. Commercial operators typically provide aircraft and/or crew under contract.
Without knowing the ins and outs of the Otago Trust, my guess is that particular machine in the photo (ZK-IME) likely earns its keep with a variety of commercial work but is also used as back up for the dedicated EMS machine (ZK-HUP), during periods of scheduled maintenance for instance.

According to Google, that letter was also posted on a '1080 eyewitness' Facebook page five days ago. It insinuates (incorrectly IMO) that the helicopter in the photo is the Trusts lead rescue aircraft. An attempt to garner shock and anger when it is most probably unfounded.
I do stand to be corrected though.

thanks for that info i dont have facebook so im a bit out of touch with the real world

Yeah I do, quite substantially, because we've had to use them on five occasions and two were life and death situations.

Originally Posted by JoshC

Yeah I do, quite substantially, because we've had to use them on five occasions and two were life and death situations.

I think Wikipedia now links to this thread for the definition of "cutting off your nose to spite your face"

Originally Posted by Friwi

Also do the pilots and people working around 1080 have a clause of non disclosure in their contract?

No, instead there is a stigma attached to the operation that prevents free and frank discussion from those involved.
A fair amount of anti sentiment gets directed at contractors, vilifying people who are just doing their job and earning a living. They are not policy makers.

If really dislike the insinuation from the OP and the letter that we shouldn't support the Life Trust because they are casually involved with 1080. It's paradoxical that promoting anti 1080 is more important than saving lives, which are often hunters and people in our bush.

I donate monthly to westpac chopper for the times that myself and family and strangers may need their help.
What they do in their own time is neither my business or concern.



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