‘It impacts our families’
Taranaki’s rescue helicopter has been flying the region’s skies for 25 years. Leighton Keith talks to some of the people who keep it airborne.
When Andy Cronin’s work cellphone rings his young children immediately know their daddy might have to drop everything and leave.
Cronin, who is the general manager and crewman for the Taranaki rescue helicopter, says his two boys, aged five and three, are already old enough to realise what the call could mean.
‘‘They shadow me around the house because they are worried that I’m going to leave.
‘‘Kids love routine and when you rush out of the house at the drop of a hat it can be upsetting for them.’’
One of Cronin’s boys even took to sitting on his lap to prevent him from leaving, but now they’ve established a drill to make the process easier for them.
‘‘They know they get a kiss and then they run to the window to watch. As I’m backing out and they’re sitting at the window I have to toot the horn and wave, in that order.’’
The Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust, which runs the service, is celebrating 25 years in operation today with an open day at the hanger from 10am to 1pm.
The service’s crew work a five days on, three days off roster, which involves being on call for a 96 hour period, while the pilots are on a four days on, four off rotation.
On-call staff can’t drink, travel outside a certain radius of the helicopter’s hanger at Taranaki Base Hospital, or make any plans that can’t be dropped at a moment’s notice.
Cronin, who carries two cellphones and a pager, says the job can have an impact on family life.
‘‘It comes with the territory, we know what we are getting into when we sign up for this career.
‘‘It’s certainly not for everyone and it certainly has an impact on our families.
‘‘We’ve got good friends who live in Oakura, we can only go to their place when I’m off duty. But they can come around to our place when I’m on duty, but there’s no guarantee I will be there for the whole time.’’
Cronin, who has been fulltime with the service for about five years after years as a volunteer in its marine team, even has to take his uniform and gear on small trips to the supermarket or out to get milk.
‘‘When I go to the supermarket I have to take all of my work gear in the car with me and be prepared not to be able to deliver what I went to get back home.’’
Pilot Mike Parker, who has been with the service for five years, has also fallen victim to his pager going off while out shopping.
‘‘I’ve had to run off and dump everything at the counter and say ‘can you please put this back for me?’.’’
Cronin says his wife Emma doesn’t sleep well when he’s on a job at night.
‘‘They worry to a degree about what we are up to.’’
He says he’s fortunate to have her fully behind him.
‘‘You couldn’t do this sort of job without that support because it impacts on her as much as it impacts on me.’’
Emma says the job can take its toll at times, affecting both her and their young family, but the couple tried to put a positive spin on it.
‘‘Yes it does affect them and their routine, but we try to say there’s someone who needs him more than we do at the moment.’’
She also worried about Andy’s
safety when he was out on missions but knew how professional the crew were.
‘‘There’s always that in the back of my mind, that something could happen.
‘‘I guess I’m quite trusting and I know that they wouldn’t do something that they didn’t believe they are capable of doing.’’
Emma says if anyone in her family was in trouble she would want people with the skills of the service’s crew to help.
‘‘I’m very proud of them. What they do, it’s not a job that everyone can do. I certainly couldn’t do it.’’
Trust chairman Bryce Barnett says he’s absolutely delighted to see the service reach the 25 year milestone.
‘‘A lot of people have contributed over the years to see this day.
‘‘It’s something the everyone in Taranaki deserves a pat on the back for.’’
He also acknowledged the sacrifice the families of crew members and volunteers made.
‘‘It’s not just the hours they are called out to do the rescue.
‘‘I’d say for every hour they are doing a rescue they are spending ten hours in training, people don’t appreciate that’s all family time.’’
Barnett encouraged families to attend the open day.
‘‘Come along and share the experience and hear some of the
stories.
‘‘See the people who have made it what it is because it’s not going away.’’
Noel Watson, who was instrumental in establishing the service in 1992 and left in 2010, says neither he nor his wife missed him being on-call 24/7.
‘‘We would go out for a drive or to dinner and the pager would go off and she knew straight away if the pager went off there was going to be a change in what we were doing.
Watson’s wife would then be abandoned after she dropped him at the hanger.
‘‘In the end she said I don’t see the sense if you are on-call or have got the pager on why I’m going out with you because there’s a high possibility you won’t be with me the whole time.’’
Watson, who had served 14 years as a police officer, says the two most memorable rescues during his 18 years with the service both involved plucking people from the Tasman Sea.
The first was past Awakino and the chopper was responding to reports of a body in the water.
However when they arrived, right on dusk, they discovered two people treading water surrounded by cliffs.
‘‘That was pretty hair raising for me and the pilot because it was pretty tight.’’
The second, which won the country’s top honour for a search and rescue operation, involved saving a fisherman who had been thrown from a boat and was trapped at the base of a 30-metre cliff near the mouth of the Patea River in February 2009.
The crew battled three-metre swells to lower paramedic Rob Berry down to where Michael Muggeridge was stuck.
Muggeridge was exhausted after being pounded on the rocks and it was impossible for rescue boats to reach him. He was hoisted clear as a huge wave bore down on the pair.
‘‘Barely a couple of seconds later and they would have been in serious trouble,’’ Watson says.
Watson says he feels proud to have been involved in establishing the service and believed it had a bright future.
‘‘It’s certainly heading in the right direction.’’
Cronin says while the job could be demanding and impacted on family life, it was rewarding.
‘‘This job doesn’t come with a high hourly rate but we are in an incredibly privileged position to make a real difference to people’s and families lives.’’
He was a member of the service’s marine team that received the New Zealand Search and Rescue Council’s gold award for winching 10 people to safety from Paritutu Rock in August 2012 and part of the team who received the council’s certificate of achievement for the dynamic rescue of three trampers stuck on Mt Taranaki on September 11, 2016.
He says while the chopper had a high profile it was not a magic cure and relied on its partnerships with other organisations including the police, fire, ambulance to achieve the positive results for those in need.
‘‘We are just part of the team, a link in the chain. We’re only a vehicle for getting people places to help other people in need.’’