Chopper repairs raise bill past $ 1m

A HELICOPTER trip for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk that should have cost $ 4500 has cost taxpayers more than $ 1 million.

An extra QG Air AW139 helicopter was flown to Townsville from Brisbane as a support aircraft at a cost of about $ 13,000 an hour on a 12hour return trip as rising floodwaters bombarded North Queensland this month.

Making matters worse, the chopper, meant to carry the Premier during her visit to inundated communities around Ingham, hit an aluminium work stand while taxiing to the QG Air hangar in Townsville.

All five main rotor blades were damaged beyond repair, with industry insiders estimating the replacement cost at about $ 250,000 a blade.

Cairns tour agency Nautilus Aviation’s Bell 412 helicopter was available but did not receive the call until it became clear QG Air’s Brisbane- based chopper was out of action.

Nautilus was eventually tasked – by the Education Department – to evacuate 72 students stranded in the floods at Tully over the same weekend.

Nautilus CEO Aaron Finn said the State Government could have paid for a Nautilus helicopter for more than a year for the cost of the repairs and Brisbane- Townsville journey.

“It would have covered the availability of our Bell 412 for 12 months; it would be ready to go whenever it was needed,” he said.

“We could have flown the Premier around the floods and it would have probably cost them $ 4500. We were already in Tully doing the evacuation of the schoolchildren at the same time.”

Mr Finn said the repair bill could tally up to more than $ 2 million depending on the outcome of inspections.

A Public Safety Business Agency spokeswoman confirmed the incident but said all emergency calls for flood retrieval and other tasks were met.

“It is anticipated that the helicopter will be back online at the end of March, with other providers within the Emergency Helicopter Network providing coverage during this period,” she said.

“Nobody was injured as part of this incident. As inquiries are continuing at this time, it is not appropriate to speculate on the cause or other aspects of the incident.”