CareFlight

In 2019, CareFlight rescued a critically ill man from a cruise ship that was located 200 kilometres off the coast of mainland Australia.

This mission saw the CareFlight crew using a complex hover and winch recovery technique due to the cruise ship not having a helipad.

[6] Since their first international retrieval mission, in 1990, from Penang,[7] CareFlight has been bringing injured or sick overseas Australians back home.

[9] CareFlight's clinical team comprising a specialist doctor, two nurses, pilot and first officer flew to New Zealand from Sydney on Thursday 12 December to retrieve two patients, who had suffered critical injuries in the 2019 Whakaari / White Island eruption.

The development of this concept has shaped and simplified the cabin fit of subsequent air medical craft, both rotary and fixed-wing.

[13][14] Former CareFlight Medical Director and Chief HIRT Investigator, Dr Alan Garner OAM, presented the results of this ground-breaking research at the 2012 International Conference for Emergency Medicine in Dublin.

This research study, partially funded by the Medevac Foundation in the United States, was conducted in partnership with the cardiac anaesthesia services and blood bank at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

[7] In June 2011, the Northern Territory Government announced the award of a ten-year Top End Medical Retrieval Service contract to CareFlight.

[20] Today, CareFlight uses a fleet of helicopters, jet aircraft, turbo-prop planes and road vehicles, across Australia.

Patients are also transferred using specially modified road transport vehicles for specialist treatment in major hospitals.

In 1987, CareFlight became the first emergency helicopter service in NSW to be on 24-hour duty.
In 1991, CareFlight's 2000th patient, six month-old Nathan Isedale, is flown to Camperdown Children's Hospital after being admitted to Bowral Hospital with viral pneumonia.
In 1996, CareFlight is the first Australian medical team to use an intra-aortic balloon pump during a helicopter patient transfer.
In 2000, CareFlight launched second helicopter operations with the Central West emergency helicopter in Orange.
In 2007, CareFlight conducted their first International Air Ambulance mission.
In 2009, CareFlight established helicopter operations in Darwin.
In 2011, CareFlight launched its MediSim trauma care workshops, designed for local emergency services personnel and volunteers.
In 2018, CareFlight became the first Australian aeromedical service to routinely carry plasma.
In 2020, CareFlight was awarded the inter-hospital patient transport jet contract by the NT Government.
CareFlight CEO Mick Frewen with CareFlight's H145 helicopter, which launched in 2021.