The Air Corridor to Te Wao Nui

'Flying can be the difference between life and death' 
It was 1968 when plumber, Peter Button, witnessed the sinking of the Wahine ferry and realised a helicopter could have saved lives. He thought: “there has to be a better way”. These words inspired him to create Life Flight. In 1975 Peter obtained his helicopter license and purchased a Hughes 300 helicopter, thanks to the generosity of Mark Dunajtschik.
'Flying can be the difference between life and death' 
It was 1968 when plumber, Peter Button, witnessed the sinking of the Wahine ferry and realised a helicopter could have saved lives. He thought: “there has to be a better way”. These words inspired him to create Life Flight. In 1975 Peter obtained his helicopter license and purchased a Hughes 300 helicopter, thanks to the generosity of Mark Dunajtschik.

In 1981, thanks to the initiative of super intelligent and extremely forward thinking PR Manager, Bill Day, the Commercial Bank of Australia (later becoming Westpac) began sponsorship of the rescue helicopter. The following year, the Life Flight Trust was established and since then, over 40,000 people have received help from this amazing service providing rescue services and urgent transport to hospital.

Over the years, with ongoing support of Westpac, some government funding and community fundraising, Life Flight provides transport in planes and the helicopter. After 30 years of service, the Jetstream planes have been replaced by 3 modern planes from the Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service. These planes were well set up for flying patients for medical transport and allow the service to land on much smaller airstrips which gives them a far greater reach around the catchment area - which just happens to match the Rotary 9940 District catchment area - the Lower North Island from Hawkes Bay across to Wanganui, with Life Flight also covering the top of the South Island.

Rotary District  9940 Children's Health Trust has been very active in providing support for Wellington medical services - having raised over $400,000 for the whanau rooms at the new Te Wao Nui - Wellington Children's Hospital. The Trust is now establishing a project to 'Provide the air corridor to Te Wao Nui'. There some specific items to be purchased including specialist incubator lifting masts, brackets as well as extra whanau seats etc. In total they will be looking to raise around $300,000. We can expect to see more activity with this project coming soon - let's get ready to play our part.