AIR AMBULANCE

The Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter

We service the Otago and Southland areas with a specialised patient retrieval service and fully equipped helicopters.

Remoteness and hostility

The remoteness and hostility of our geographical region means a heavy reliance on the rescue helicopter for any kind of medical attention to the outlying communities.
Dedicated helicopters

Five dedicated helicopters from two bases, we operate 24/7, 365 days of the year.
More capability than ever before

The modernization of our rescue fleet and implementation of new instrument approaches across the region, gives us more capability than ever before to provide medical support in almost all weather conditions.
Certified for single pilot VFR, IFR and NVG

Our modern state of the art helicopters have never been safer or more capable and are certified for single pilot VFR, IFR and NVG
Search and Rescue and other aerial support

We are on call to RCCNZ and Police to provide aerial SAR support. Our helicopters are equipped with beacon and direction finding avionics, night sun spot lights, thermal imaging (FLIR) cameras, winches and winching equipment for both responsive and unresponsive patients.

Rescue helicopter on road with emergency services in background

The Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter operated by Helicopters Otago has been servicing the lower half of the South Island since 1998.

Covering 89,000 km2 and 350,000 people, we look after 33% of New Zealand and just over 7% of the population. We service South Canterbury, South Westland, Otago, Fiordland, Southland and Stewart Island.

critical care paramedics

Our helicopters are crewed with critical care paramedics, equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and are on call to be airborne within 10 minutes during the day and 20 minutes during the night, aiming to get top level medical care to the patient within the critical golden hour.