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The extension, valued at more than $370 million, will come into effect from 1 January 2026, and will see Babcock continue to supply Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for AV until 2030. AV’s HEMS responded to 2,197 incidents last year, with an average of almost 200 cases each month.
The Queensland-based aeromedical organisation is expanding its AW139 fleet to 16, with three other rotary and four fixed-wing aircraft also in its stable. The AW139s will be used to provide emergency medical services as well as search and rescue response missions.
The crash of VH-XWD on 31 March 2022, which killed all five people on board and was labelled “among the worst in Victoria’s history”, was a result of the pilot inadvertently flying into weather conditions that required instruments despite operating under visual flight rules (VFR).
However, an ATSB interim report into the incident concluded that the low concentrations of the drug suggested it would unlikely to have been an “impairment of his psychomotor skills”.
The Bell 204B firefighting helicopter, registered VH-EQW, was collecting water from a dam at Tarome in south-east Queensland on 20 September when it crashed, destroying it and causing minor injuries to the pilot.
Peter Carter, director of Carter Capner Law and former national president of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said the incident should “sound alarm bells” for the safety regulator and that Wilson’s family may be entitled to compensation over the incident.
