Child Flight was an Australian

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribut ...

service dedicated to the

emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

transport of sick children. It operates two twin-engined instrument-flight rated helicopters. As a

not-for-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

, the service relies on community support and corporate

sponsorship Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is kn ...

to complement a government operating

grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom * Castle Grant United States *Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

. The service was located at the Newborn and paediatric Emergency Transport Service (NETS) statewide base at Westmead in Sydney. It was the preferred helicopter transport vehicle for NETS, the emergency medical transport service for

newborns An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

, infants and children. The service employed ten pilots, an aircraft maintenance engineer and fund-raising and office staff.

History

Founded by

Bart Bassett Bart Edward Bassett (born 4 March 1961) is an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2015, representing the electorate of Londonderry. He was elected as a member of the Liberal Party, bu ...

, Dr. Andrew Berry and Jeremy Ovens to supply air transport to NETS, the service started with a twin-engined

BO 105 The Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 is a light, twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter developed by Bölkow of Ottobrunn, West Germany. It was the first light twin-engine helicopter in the world, and the first rotorcraft that could perform ae ...

helicopter on 19 November 1989. Within twelve months, a new

BK 117 The MBB/Kawasaki BK 117 is a twin-engined medium utility–transport helicopter. It was jointly developed and manufactured by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) of Germany and Kawasaki of Japan. MBB was later purchased by Daimler-Benz and event ...

was delivered from the factory in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

as the flagship of the service. In 2000, a second helicopter was purchased to improve service continuity to NETS. It was a twin-engined Eurocopter AS365 N2 Dauphin with tricycle retractable landing gear and high-speed, long distance performance. In June 2010, another aircraft was introduced into the fleet; a

Bell 412 The Bell 412 is a utility helicopter of the Huey family manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It is a development of the Bell 212, with the major difference being the composite four-blade main rotor. Design and development Development began in t ...

EP which provided more working space, carrying capacity and operating range than has previously been available from the BK 117. In late November, it was announced that Child Flight's contract would cease on 31 December 2012 after the

New South Wales Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party o ...

awarded the Newborn and paediatric Emergency Transport Service contract to

CareFlight CareFlight is an air medical service headquartered in Westmead, New South Wales, Australia. History CareFlight was founded in Sydney, Australia in May 1986 as an aeromedical charity. Its mission is to save lives, speed recovery ...

. Child Flight had hoped to have the contract extended by six months, in order to sell the three aircraft without "fire sale" prices. In December, the

New South Wales Ministry of Health The New South Wales Ministry of Health, branded NSW Health, is a ministerial department of the New South Wales Government. NSW Health supports the executive and statutory roles of the Minister for Health, the Minister for Regional Health, a ...

and Child Flight negotiated an agreement which will give Child Flight five months and to complete its transition, by ceasing its aviation arm but retaining a charity arm in support of medical retrieval. Child Flight and CareFlight also negotiated an agreement for a two-month lease for one helicopter from Child Flight, to continue the services that was once provided by Child Flight from 1 January 2013.

References

External links

Official Website
1989 establishments in Australia Emergency medical services in Australia Organizations established in 1989 Medical and health organisations based in New South Wales {{Australia-company-stub