The Sunshine Coast-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter crew airlifted a man to hospital today after he suffered a serious leg injury while operating an excavator.

A man, aged in his 80s, was working on the machine in the Fraser Coast region when a tree branch fell and injured his leg. 

He was treated by the RACQ LifeFlight rescue aeromedical crew and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) paramedic, before being flown to Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.