LifeFlight airlifts man to safety in multi-agency flood rescue

The Mount Isa-based LifeFlight aeromedical crew last night airlifted a man to safety after he became stranded when his car was swept away by flood waters.

The LifeFlight helicopter was tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland at 8.16pm to the remote Gulf Territory near the Northern Territory border.

The LifeFlight crew transported two Queensland Fire Department (QFD) swiftwater rescue technicians to the scene along the Nicholson River and landed nearby.

Queensland Police Service (QPS) officers as well as Rural Fire Service Queensland (RFSQ) and SES (State Emergency Service) volunteers were also on scene.

Local motorists shined their car headlights on the river to help QFD locate the man and his vehicle.

The QFD rescuers were able to reach the patient, who was on an isolated sandbank surrounded by rushing floodwater, after swimming through waters inhabited by crocodiles.

The LifeFlight helicopter was able to land safely nearby to collect the patient and the QFD rescuers.

The man, in his 30s, was uninjured and airlifted to Doomadgee Airport where he was assessed by Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) paramedics.

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