Key Stats: FY24
- 8,177 people helped – up 11.2% on FY23
- A patient helped every 64 minutes
- Helicopter flying hours surged 25% to 5,159 hours
- People helped by rotary wing up 131% to 5,313
- Toowoomba was the busiest base again helping 891 people
- Townsville and Brisbane jets helped 850 people – up 79% on FY23
- Close to 90,000 people helped since start of LifeFlight in 1979
Leading aeromedical provider LifeFlight helped a record 8,177 people in FY24 – more than 11 per cent higher than the previous year.
Data released this week by the Queensland not-for-profit shows its helicopter crews completed 3,378 missions, including 150 motor vehicle accidents and 89 search and rescue missions. Crews aboard the nine rotary wing aircraft helped 5,313 people – up 131 per cent on FY23.
LifeFlight choppers spent 5,159 hours in the air, with Toowoomba LifeFlight crews clocking up the most hours across the fleet with 1,164 hours.
LifeFlight’s fleet of helicopters, air ambulance jets and specially trained medical teams, including LifeFlight critical care doctors, flight nurses and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) paramedics, helped patients with a range of illnesses and injuries.
There were 158 missions for animal-related injuries while search and rescues totalled 59 and taskings associated with motor vehicle accidents increased by 156 per cent to 710.
The surge in car crashes is why LifeFlight is investing more in First Minutes Matter, a free safety education program that draws on LifeFlight’s decades of aeromedical experience to teach emergency trauma training for those first on the scene of accidents.
LifeFlight Chief Operating Officer Lee Schofield, said rescue crews helped an average of 157 patients per week – the equivalent of one every 64 minutes.
“The numbers keep rising each year which shows how crucial LifeFlight’s aeromedical service is, reaching far and wide across our state, and helping thousands of people,” said Mr Schofield.
“This past financial year our crews have saved people from challenging situations on land, sea and even on the side of mountains.
“Our crews are called any day, anytime, and are always ready to spring into action, even in precarious situations, all at no cost to the patient.
“This next financial year we’ll be able to do even more with five additional AW139 helicopters added to our fleet and new expanded bases in Mount Isa and the Sunshine Coast.”
In November, the Sunshine Coast crew rescued two men floating in the ocean after their light plane experienced engine difficulties and plunged into the sea.
The LifeFlight helicopter reached the scene within minutes of the crash with the crew winching the rescue basket down and bringing the men up one at a time before they were flown to Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
In February, the Bundaberg crew was called to help an elderly man after he fell and struck his head on a cruise ship 80 nautical miles off the coast.
The helicopter crew lowered down a Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) flight paramedic to the ship where the patient was treated and winched into the chopper before being airlifted to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a stable condition.
The same crew was also tasked to K’gari four times in one week to airlift patients with marine stings.
The top four missions* in FY24 included:
- Cardiac – 1,033
- MVAs – 710
- Animal-related – 158
- SAR – 59
*By people helped
LifeFlight’s fleet of four air ambulance jets and nine rotary wing aircraft operates from eight bases across Queensland, and Singapore, and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, directly servicing an area of 1.85 million square kilometres.
It supports search and rescue efforts across 53 million square kilometres of land and sea for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
Medical teams work onboard a network of both rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft from aeromedical bases, comprised of Mount Isa, Townsville, Bundaberg, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Roma, Brisbane and Singapore.
LifeFlight’s Brisbane Airport base accommodates two air ambulance jets, with two other jet bases in Townsville and Singapore to ensure long-distance fixed wing aeromedical coverage.
The jet crews helped 948 people in FY24, a 100 per cent spike from 473 in 2023. It included evacuating Keith Davis and Kerry Jordan from Bangkok to Australia in May after they were injured when their Singapore Airlines flight was hit by severe turbulence.
There is also a helicopter based at Brisbane Airport, which helped 1,672 people.
LifeFlight will become a major tenant when the new Queensland Regional Aeromedical Base is completed in 2026 making Brisbane Airport the proud home of LifeFlight.
LifeFlight Medical Director Dr Jeff Hooper, said the organisation continued to lead the way in the aeromedical sector with world-leading standards of care.
“This is often while our crews deal with extremely challenging conditions, whether that is stabilising a patient mid-air, winching down a paramedic to the side of a cliff face, or rescuing people stranded in the ocean,” said Dr Hooper.
“Our teams have the specialist emergency medicine skills required to provide the best available treatment to people, who are often in remote locations, while battling the elements.
“Our critical care doctors, nurses and paramedics are a mobile intensive care team able to provide rapid aeromedical intervention, which often is the difference between life and death. That’s why the work is so important to hundreds of thousands of people living in regional and remote communities throughout Queensland.”
The organisation directly provided a net injection of $95 million into the Queensland economy through its profit-for-purpose activities as well as the operation of eight Queensland bases, training academy, foundation and engineering facilities.
The community impact from LifeFlight’s services is significant with every $1 spent equating to a social benefit of $8.20 for an overall social and economic benefit of more than $1 billion. This means the value to community in the number of lives saved and the economic benefit outstripped the cost of providing the service by more than eight times.
While FY24 saw many dramatic rescue missions, much of LifeFlight’s aeromedical work involves Inter-Facility Transfers (IFT), which refers to moving patients between medical facilities. This ensures all communities have equal access to the best possible healthcare, no matter where they live. There were 6,565 of these missions in FY24.
LifeFlight also has a partnership with Surat Gas Aeromedical Service (SGAS). SGAS was created in partnership with LifeFlight and four CSG/LNG organisations – Arrow Energy, Origin Energy, Shell QGC and Santos – to ensure company employees, their contractors and the wider southwest Queensland community have access to prompt emergency medical services and to minimise the impact on local medical services.
As part of its commitment to the southwest region, SGAS donates 150 flying hours to the community.
Since taking to the skies 45 years ago LifeFlight has helped close to 90,000 people.
LifeFlight rescue helicopters contribute to the Queensland Emergency Helicopter Network via a fully costed agreement with the Queensland Government which came into effect April 2024.