13 April 2005
The Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand managed the rescue of a 37-year-old man early this morning, who became trapped while hunting about 30kms east of Lake Brunner on the West Coast of the South Island.
The RCCNZ sent a Garden City Helicopter from Christchurch to find and locate the source of the beacon.
At 6.30 pm the helicopter crew found the man on a cliff waving his torch for attention. However, with darkness approaching, it was too dangerous for the helicopter to winch the man into the helicopter so close to the cliff.
A land rescue was also deemed too dangerous in the dark, so the hunter was left there overnight and rescued by helicopter at 7.50am this morning.
Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Mike Roberts says the cliff face where the hunter was located made a night rescue too difficult.
“It would have been a very welcome sight for him to see the helicopter reappear this morning.
“This rescue is a really good example about how useful personal locator beacons are if you ever get in distress in a remote location. It’s critical that you buy 406MHz frequency beacons rather than others on the market though. The position information is more accurate, and from 2009 only these types of beacons will be detected by satellite, which in this particular case was the only means of notifying us that someone needed help,” he said.
The hunter activated his Personal Locator Beacon yesterday afternoon when the track on which he was walking slipped away and he couldn’t go forwards or backwards. His only exit was a raging river, so the only safe way out was by helicopter.
For further information contact:
Maritime New Zealand Media Line
Phone 04 499 7318
