{"id":20258,"date":"2013-01-11T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=20258"},"modified":"2023-11-28T16:27:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T06:27:15","slug":"chopper-crew-put-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/01\/11\/chopper-crew-put-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Helicopter Rescue Crew
Put At Risk By Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
AGL Action Helicopter pilot Peter Potroz … made a safe landing in difficult circumstances<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January 11, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

An AGL Action Rescue Helicopter crew attempting a medical retrieval from Fraser Island says it was put at risk this week when holidaymakers shone headlights and a hand-held spotlight on the chopper as it was trying to land.<\/p>\n

Pilot Peter Potroz said he flashed the helicopter\u2019s spotlight in the hope the beachgoers would refrain from their disruptive actions, but instead they persisted.<\/p>\n

The holiday revellers began driving from the southern end of the beach to the north, shining headlights at the approaching helicopter.<\/p>\n

Mr Potroz said blinding the cockpit could have “horrible” consequences.<\/p>\n

“If we are blinded by the light and we can’t see where the ground is, we going to have to pull power and shoot around and do another \u00a0approach to the airfield … if we can’t see and we carry on landing, we can actually end up crashing into the ground,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made the landing more difficult than usual but we remained calm and concentrated on the task at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew was called to the island on Wednesday night to airlift a 36-year-old man with lacerations to his left arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew the patient we were airlifting had lost a significant amount of blood and needed urgent medical treatment from our flight paramedic. Fortunately we got to him in time,\u201d Mr Potroz said.<\/p>\n

Upon landing, the helicopter\u2019s paramedic together with QAS paramedics worked to stabilise the man who was later airlifted to the Bundaberg Base Hospital in a stable condition.<\/p>\n

Action Rescue CEO David Donaldson praised the efforts of the highly skilled helicopter crew but warned that the incident posed a severe safety threat to them as well as the culprits.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafety is always our number one priority and the outcomes of the incident could have been catastrophic for all,\u201d Mr Donaldson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur crew has done an amazing job managing this situation and the risks at hand, I can\u2019t commend them enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

A helicopter spokesman said the incident had been reported to Fraser Island police.<\/p>\n

Since Christmas, the AGL helicopter has flown to Fraser Island 16 times to help more than a dozen people.<\/p>\n

[Photo: AGL Action Rescue Helicopter]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A medevac chopper was put at risk when a spotlight was shone on it as it was landing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":20320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,24],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHelicopter Rescue Crew Put At Risk By Spotlight - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/01\/11\/chopper-crew-put-at-risk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Helicopter Rescue Crew Put At Risk By Spotlight - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A medevac chopper was put at risk when a spotlight was shone on it as it was landing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/01\/11\/chopper-crew-put-at-risk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-11T07:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-28T06:27:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/peterpotroz.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/01\/11\/chopper-crew-put-at-risk\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/01\/11\/chopper-crew-put-at-risk\/\",\"name\":\"Helicopter Rescue Crew Put At Risk By Spotlight - 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