Key Stats Bundaberg: 2025
- People helped – 401 (up 34.5% on 2024)
- 777 flying hours (up 6%)
- 501 missions (up 13.8% – includes training)
- 8,838 people helped across the LifeFlight network (up 4.2%)
The Bundaberg-based LifeFlight aeromedical crew airlifted a record number of patients in 2025, including a teenager who fell 80m from Mount Walsh and a pilot who crashed his light plane in the Gladstone region.
Data released this week by LifeFlight shows 401 people were helped, up 34.5 per cent on the previous year.
Servicing the Wide Bay-Burnett region and beyond, the crew was called out to a wide range of emergencies including motor vehicle crashes, search and rescues and winched injured hikers.
Trauma-related airlifts rose 32 per cent to 119 while cardiac cases increased 7.7 per cent to 56. The big increase was animal-related incidents by 80 per cent to 18.
The region contributed to an overall record year for LifeFlight, which came to the aid of 8,838 people.
The Bundaberg base also welcomed a new AW139 helicopter, capable of going farther and faster to reach patients from the ocean to the mountains.
LifeFlight helicopters are tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland as part of a 10-year service agreement with the Queensland Government.
The crew completed a number of dramatic rescues during the year.
In February the Bundaberg crew airlifted pilot Kieran Gibson to hospital after he crashed his light plane following engine failure.
In November the aeromedical team rescue-winched teenager Jake McCollum off Mount Walsh after he fell 80 metres and used his AirPods to contact his family.
LifeFlight Acting Chief Operating Officer Pete Elliott, said the Bundaberg crew continued to lead the way with ocean rescues, airlifting stranded boaties and sick crew from large vessels.
“LifeFlight Bundaberg is ideally positioned because of its location by the coast for these kinds of rescues and the crew is highly skilled at performing these missions,” Mr Elliott said.
“We also saw the crew perform a number of complex inland missions such as the winching of patient Jake McCollum which was a fantastic result.”
Mr Elliott said the back-to-back record years of 2024 and 2025 showed the organisation’s drive to deliver improved technology and aeromedical capabilities was working.
“The new AW139 helicopters, equipment and advanced training programs mean we’re able to help more Queenslanders than ever before with world-class aeromedical care,” Mr Elliott said.
“The advanced helicopters are a result of our 10-year service agreement with the Queensland Government, which brings us closer to our goal of bringing equity of healthcare to Queenslanders no matter where they live.”
Mr Elliott said LifeFlight’s operation included highly skilled intensive care medical teams and pilots backed up by LifeFlight’s communication, coordination and control centre known as C3.
He said LifeFlight had cemented new partnerships during the year, such as with AW139 manufacturer Leonardo, to ensure it remained at the forefront of innovation and training.
“Preparedness is key for our crews because they do not know what will be thrown at them each day. It can range from winching hikers off a mountain in the southeast through to search and rescue missions for missing people in North West Queensland,” he said.
“That’s why our investment in technology and training, alongside our partners, is so important towards delivering life-saving care.”
He said LifeFlight was also ramping up the rollout of its free First Minutes Matter emergency trauma training workshops throughout the state.
Nearly 1200 people participated in First Minutes Matter in 2025 across 150 workshops.
“This is vital for building on community resilience by teaching people practical skills to manage life-threatening events such as car crashes, farming accidents, stroke and snake bites.”
LifeFlight Medical Director Dr Jeff Hooper, said LifeFlight made great strides in 2025 in recruiting new critical care doctors, conducting clinical research, and using real-life rescues to inform community training.
“Because we are a vertically-integrated organisation with our own fleet, doctors, nurses and paramedics, we can directly feed their front-line experiences into our research and First Minutes Matter training,” Dr Hooper said.
“We know clinical practice is constantly changing and evolving so we need to make sure we are at the forefront of the latest innovations.”
During the year, LifeFlight’s new medical teams underwent intensive aeromedical training at the LifeFlight Training Academy, including Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET), rescue winching and clinical scenario training.
“Crews administer prehospital and retrieval medicine under highly stressful conditions, so they have to be ready for any eventuality, and this is what the training equips them to do,” Dr Hooper said.
“It is why our aircraft are fitted out as mobile intensive care units with advanced medical equipment to care for patients whether we are operating 35,000 feet above the ground in a Challenger jet, or in the back of a helicopter.
“This aeromedical intervention is vitally important as it can be the difference between life and death.”
Crews support search and rescue efforts across 53 million square kilometres of land and sea for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
Complementing the helicopter network, four Challenger 604 jets are rotated through the Brisbane, Townsville and Singapore bases.
The jet crews helped 1,014 people in 2025 with Townsville recording a 22 per cent increase in people helped to 598.
LifeFlight’s 24/7 Communications, Coordination, and Control Centre acts as the hub of all operations and is run by a dedicated team of aviation professionals who handle thousands of calls and messages to coordinate complex aeromedical services.
As in previous years, much of LifeFlight’s aeromedical work involved Inter-Facility Transfers (IFT) or moving patients between medical facilities. This ensures all communities have equal access to the best possible healthcare, no matter where they live.
Every 59 minutes, LifeFlight aircraft rescue a seriously ill or injured patient, flying from 10 base locations across the Asia Pacific.
2025 MISSION HIGHLIGHTS: Â
- January – LifeFlight winches man from vessel at sea. The crew winched a man from a car carrier vessel 12 kilometres off the Sunshine Coast after he became unwell.
- February – LifeFlight airlifts man after light plane crash. The crew airlifted a man to hospital following a light plane crash in the Gladstone region.
- March – LifeFlight airlifts woman from K’gari after suspected snake bite. A woman was airlifted to hospital after a reported snakebite on a walking track on K’gari.
- April – LifeFlight locate missing man in bushland. The man had been missing for 24 hours when he was located in the Fraser Coast region.
- June – LifeFlight airlifts four people after boat sinks off Bundaberg. Three adults and one teenager had been out fishing Saturday when they took shelter from the weather on Hoskyn Island.
- August – LifeFlight winches man after waterfall incident – The crew winched a man to safety after he slipped on a rock and fell three metres.
- November – LifeFlight airlifts teenage bushwalker from mountain – The Bundaberg crew winched a teenager off Mount Walsh after he fell 80 metres and used his AirPods to contact his family.
- November – LifeFlight winches man from bulk carrier off Gladstone coast – The crew winched a man off a bulk carrier after a medical incident.
