Queensland Government (QGAir) Rescue Agusta AW139 Helicopter VH-EZJ Flys South via Mackay and Gladstone Airports

On Saturday 14 December, Queensland Government (QGAir) Rescue (State of Queensland) Agusta AW139 helicopter VH-EZJ was noted ferrying South from Townsville via Mackay and Gladstone Airports to Archerfield.

File photo

VH-EZJ seems to heading to Archerfield for planned maintenance after operating out of Townsville Airport for a period of time as "Rescue 521".

UPDATE!  No!  VH-EZJ has taken up operations out of Archerfield in the South-East corner as "Rescue 500".

As we have mentioned previously, this is part of the 'rotational system' the service utilises to ensure the even distribution of flying hours on each of the QGAir Rescue helicopters.  This system avoids the need to have multiple helicopters offline for simultaneous scheduled maintenance.

Of interest, fellow QGAir AW139 VH-ESZ flew North into Townsville in late November (see Blog post below) and has since looked to take up operations out of Townsville as "Rescue 521". 

Photo taken by 'AC'  ©