Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Queensland Government (QGAir) Rescue Agusta AW139 Helicopter VH-EZJ Passes Through Rockhampton Airport Heading North

On Wednesday 26 February, Queensland Government (QGAir) Rescue Agusta AW139 helicopter VH-EZJ was spotting passing through Rockhampton Airport while ferrying North to Cairns.








It originally departed from Archerfield and was spotted arriving into Rockhampton Airport where it refuelled before continuing to Townsville and then Cairns.

VH-EZJ looks to have spent much of February undergoing planned maintenance after it had originally flown South from Townsville in December last year.  VH-EZJ also looked to complete at least one sortie out of Archerfield around the South East corner in recent days as "Rescue 500".

It seems that VH-EZJ could be now heading to Cairns Airport to replace fellow QGAir Rescue Leonardo S.P.A. Helicopter (Agusta) AW139 helicopter VH-EGF which has been operating in Far North Queensland as "Rescue 510".  I presume that VH-EGF will ferry South in the coming days to Archerfield where it will undergo planned maintenance.

UPDATE!  Indeed on Thursday 27 February, VH-EGF ferried South from Cairns to Archerfield via Townsville, Mackay and Gladstone Airports.

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.

Sincere thanks to local plane spotter Scott H for taking the time to capture and send through these great photos!

All photos taken by Scott Harris  ©

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