Australia — ADF Helicopters to help Northern NSW Residents

Two Aus­tralian Army Black Hawk heli­copter flew to Lis­more yes­ter­day after­noon to assist local author­i­ties with flood relief oper­a­tions in the inun­dat­ed region.

The heli­copters and crew, nor­mal­ly based at the Aus­tralian Army Avi­a­tion Train­ing Cen­tre in Oakey, Queens­land, were dis­patched to the region fol­low­ing a request from NSW author­i­ties, through Emer­gency Man­age­ment Australia. 

Act­ing Deputy Com­man­der Joint Oper­a­tion Com­modore Michael Noo­nan said the two heli­copters and crews would pro­vide much need­ed sup­port to local agen­cies deal­ing with the flooding. 

“The Black Hawks are equipped with winch­ing sys­tems and have been fit­ted with long-range fuel tanks for increased task­ing endurance,” Com­modore Noo­nan said. “If required, the crew also have their full suite of night vision equip­ment to allow oper­a­tions into the evening.” 

The Black Hawks will ini­tial­ly stage from Lis­more, but are capa­ble of oper­at­ing across the flood-affect­ed region. 

Army and Navy heli­copters played a cru­cial role in sup­port­ing flood relief oper­a­tions in South-East Queens­land and Vic­to­ria in 2011. 

Defence remains pos­tured to sup­port State and Fed­er­al agen­cies should spe­cial­ist assis­tance or equip­ment be required. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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